Biden lawyers wrote to AG Garland objecting to aspects of Hur’s report

The White House wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland the day before special counsel Robert Hur’s report was released, vehemently objecting to aspects of the report – including its “multiple denigrating statements” about the president’s memory.

The letter was the culmination of a months-long attempt by Biden’s team to weigh in on the investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents through letters to Hur and eventually to Hur’s boss, the attorney general. Ultimately, Hur did not appear to heed calls by Biden’s lawyers to produce a narrow and concise report limited to the facts of the charging decision.

Instead, the 388-page report — which declined to bring charges — sparked a political firestorm by making repeated references to Biden’s inability to recall dates and details.

“We object to the multiple denigrating statements about President Biden’s memory which violate longstanding DOJ practice and policy,” Biden’s personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, and White House counsel, Edward Siskel, wrote in a three-page letter to Garland on February 7. “This report goes further to include allegations that the President has a failing memory in a general sense, an allegation that has no law enforcement purpose.”

The lawyers wrote that “a global and pejorative judgment on the President’s powers of recollection in general is uncalled for and unfounded.”

In the February 7 letter, Biden’s lawyers likened Hur’s efforts in his report to those of James Comey, the FBI director in 2016 who criticized then-candidate Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server, despite not bringing charges. The lawyers wrote Hur’s report “mirrors one of the most widely-recognized examples in recent history of inappropriate prosecutor criticism of uncharged conduct.”

“The FBI and DOJ personnel’s criticism of uncharged conduct during investigations in connection with the 2016 election was found to violate ‘long-standing Department practice and protocol,’” the lawyers wrote.

Politico and The New York Times published copies of the letter. The White House counsel’s office declined to comment.

The letter underscores the deep anger generated by Hur’s report inside the White House and lays bare tensions between Biden’s team and Garland. CNN has previously reported that frustrations have run high inside the White House regarding some of Garland’s decisions related to the classified documents matter.

The letter to Garland also objected to Hur’s characterization of Biden’s practice of retaining personal diaries, saying that even though “prior Presidents have done exactly the same thing,” the special counsel described the behavior as “totally irresponsible.”

Hur’s report, which concluded that criminal charges were not warranted against Biden regarding his handling of classified documents, made numerous references to the president’s memory and recall issues that were allegedly exhibited during his multi-hour interview with Hur in October.

Since the report’s release, the White House and the president’s lawyers have strenuously objected to the handling of the investigation and, in particular, the references to Biden’s memory issues as gratuitous and inappropriate.

A day after Hur’s report was released publicly, a top Justice Department official responded by defending the document and its inclusion of details about Biden’s memory.

“The context in which this information is used in the report makes it appropriate under Department policy and the Special Counsel regulations. The identified language is neither gratuitous nor unduly prejudicial because it is not offered to criticize or demean the President,” wrote Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer to Biden’s team.

Weinsheimer, the department’s top career official, also pushed back on Biden’s lawyers’ comparison to Comey, calling it “inapt,” as Comey was an FBI director and not a special counsel. He said Hur’s report was “readily distinguishable from Director Comey’s press conference” about the Clinton email server.

On February 12, four days after the Hur report was released, Bauer and Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, responded to Weinsheimer – to once again disagree with the DOJ’s assessment that Hur’s report was consistent with the department’s policy and practice.

In this letter, the lawyers cited – among others – former Attorney General Eric Holder, who said that the Hur report “contains way too many gratuitous remarks and is flatly inconsistent with long standing DOJ traditions.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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