Special counsel Robert Hur to publicly testify before House Judiciary Committee: Report

Special counsel Robert Hur will testify before the House Judiciary Committee on March 12 and will publicly field questions pertaining to his investigation of President Joe Biden's handling of classified materials.

A "source familiar" with the matter confirmed the planned testimony to The Hill.

Hur's report became public last week and, though he did not recommend charges against Biden, Hur stated that "[o]ur investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen."

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur to the head up the case in January 2023 following reports that Biden left classified documents at his private D.C. office and home in Delaware.

His investigation included an interview with Biden and his report drew scrutiny over comments that the president appeared forgetful during the conversation. He further indicated that his decision against charging the president was motivated, in part, by concerns that "would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."

"Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," he also said.

Republicans have insisted that Hur's decision not to charge Biden, in contrast with special counsel Jack Smith bringing a case against former President Donald Trump over a similar issue signals a disparity in the Department of Justice's enforcement of the law.

Hur, however, partly addressed the matter in his report.

"Most notably, after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite," he wrote. "In contrast, Mr. Biden turned in classified documents to the National Archives and the Department of Justice, consented to the search of multiple locations including his homes, sat for a voluntary interview, and in other ways cooperated with the investigation."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.