Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) attacked Special Counsel Robert Hur during his testimony at the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, insinuating that he had a political motive against President Joe Biden by suggesting he had a poor memory.
Hur, as Breitbart News reported, compiled evidence that Biden had willfully and unlawfully retained classified documents after leaving the Senate and after leaving office as Vice President. Yet he explained that the Department of Justice would not prosecute Biden — even if such a prosecution were constitutionally possible — because a jury could see Biden at trial “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” making prosecution difficult.
Democrats were furious at that characterization of the president, and have continued to push back against it — even though it was the main reason that Hur recommended against prosecuting Biden for an otherwise obvious crime.
Hur revealed at the hearing that the White House had, in fact, sought the removal of some of his statements from his report — something that Democrats had tried to deny.
Hur just contradicted the claims of Democratic members that Biden and the White House did not try to change his report or remove material. He confirmed that the White House made multiple such objections to Attorney General Garland and did send such a letter seeking changes.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 12, 2024
At the hearing, most Democrats cited Hur’s report approvingly, and treated him with respect, emphasizing his decision not to prosecute (even as Republicans emphasized details of the evidence).
But Schiff was not satisfied with that.
Instead, Schiff attacked Hur, saying that he “had to know” that his language about Biden would become public and would hurt the president politically.
Hur countered that he did not know which sections of his report would become public, and that he had a duty to explain to the Attorney General the reasons that he had arrived at his conclusions.
Schiff offered no evidence that Hur had any political motives.
After Schiff’s turn to question Hur ended without offering Hur a chance to respond, committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) offered Hur that opportunity.
Hur addressed Schiff: “Congressman, what you are suggesting is that I shape, sanitize, omit portions of my reasoning in explanation to the Attorney General for political reasons.”
Schiff interjected, wagging his finger, eyes bulging: “No, I suggest that you not shape your report for political reasons, which is what you did.”
Hur replied: “That did not happen, congressman. That did not happen.”
Schiff is currently the frontrunner for U.S. Senate from California in the November general election. He faces Republican Steve Garvey, a former baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Hur testified that he is personally a Republican, but said that would not prevent him from handling investigations fairly.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.