Special counsel Robert Hur testifies on Biden classified documents probe | CNN Politics (2024)

The White House said that special counsel Robert Hur’s testimony Tuesday was enough to put to rest the classified documents matter against President Joe Biden and that Hur’s decision not to charge Biden is evidence “the president is innocent.”

“Case closed,” White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams told reporters. He said Hur “came to obvious conclusion there is no case here” after interviewing more than 100 witnesses.

He said questioning from Republican lawmakers Tuesday made “it obvious they’re trying to help the former president,” referring to Donald Trump.

Sams told CNN that Hur’s decision not to charge Biden is evidence “the president is innocent,” despite Hur explicitly saying Tuesday he “did not exonerate” Biden in his report.

Hur took special pains Tuesday to note his decision to not charge Biden should not be construed as an exoneration.

“I did notexoneratehim. That word does not appear in the report,” Hur said.

The post was updated with more reaction from Sams.

Robert Hur listens during the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday.

Former special counsel Robert Hur appeared before Congress on Tuesday to explain his investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents — which led to no charges against the president but plenty of consternation among Democrats when Hur described Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” in his report.

While Hur came ready to defend his investigation, outlining a specific, legal case — or lack thereof — the members of the House Judiciary Committee were fighting a battle over the much more subjective political consequences to Hur’s report just months before the 2024 presidential election.

Here’s a look at some of the key takeaways from Tuesday’s hearing:

Read more about the key moments from the hearing.

CNN’s Devan Cole, Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand and Evan Perez contributed to this report.

It wasn’t until Republican Rep. Ken Buck raised the final question during Tuesday’s hearing that former special counsel Robert Hur gave one of his fullest explanations as to why he didn’t bring charges against President Joe Biden.

“You must be doing a great job in your report and during your investigation if you have convinced both sides that you are somewhere in the middle,” Buck said to Hur.

During his questioning, Buck pushed Hur to explain how he determined whether Biden willfully kept classified documents, noting that Biden should have known the areas where he kept classified documents were not secure locations and that he didn’t call the National Archives when he found classified documents while working with the ghostwriter of his memoir.

This gave Hur the opportunity to explain there were “evidentiary gaps” that defense attorneys or reasonable jurors could focus on in the case, including that although Biden told his ghostwriter he found classified information, he may have later forgotten about the documents.

“A second argument that we considered is that perhaps these documents never actually were in Virginia,” Hur added. Biden had told his ghostwriter he had found “classified stuff” in a Virginia home he rented until 2019.

Rep. Jerry Nadler speaks with reporters on Tuesday, March 12.

Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, gave reporters his key takeaways after Robert Hur’s hearing about his investigation into President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents:

During the hearing, Hur explicitly said he “did not exonerate” Biden at the end of his yearlong special counsel investigation.

Nadler continued, “Secondly, the special counsel very pointedly contrasted this with the evidence against President Trump — former President Trump — who’s now been charged with about 40 different counts in terms of taking classified documents, not returning it when apprised of that, obstructing justice, hiding it, asking other people to hide the evidence.”

Robert Hur during the hearing on Tuesday, March 12.

Special counsel Robert Hur said Tuesday he made no finding as to whether President Joe Biden was mentally fit for office as part of his investigation.

Rep. Glenn Ivey, a Maryland Democrat, asked Hur about his assessment that Biden had memory gaps. The congressman asked: “Did you say anywhere in your report that you thought … he’d be unfit for public office?”

The hearing has concluded after lawmakers briefly returned from an afternoon break.

The House Judiciary Committee hearing on special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents has ended.

Hur told the GOP-led committee during the nearly five-hour long hearing that his assessment of Biden’s memory and cognitive skills found in his report was “necessary and accurate and fair,” and he explicitly said he “did not exonerate” Biden.

The bulk of the hearing involved members of the House Judiciary Committee fighting a battle over the much more subjective political consequences to Hur’s report just months before the 2024 presidential election.

The Biden campaign is feeling good about Robert Hur’s testimony Tuesday, a campaign official told CNN, citing the back-and-forth over Donald Trump’s handling of classified material during the House Judiciary Committee hearing.

The special counsel’s report, which offered a damaging portrait of an aging president, invited questions about his mental acuity and age — a delicate issue in an election year in which voters have expressed concern about Biden’s fitness to serve a second term.

But the hearing Tuesday largely focused on the differences between Hur’s investigation into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents and special counsel Jack Smith’s case investigating Trump.

Heading into Tuesday, the White House prepared for attacks from congressional Republicans against Biden, especially over lapses in memory that were referenced in Hur’s report.

Democratic lawmakers have sought to contrast the Trump classified documents case and Biden’s handling of classified documents over the course of the hearing, repeatedly stating that no charges were brought against the president.

The House Judiciary Committee is back from a brief recess, and special counsel Robert Hur continues to testify about his investigation into President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.

Members of the committee are continuing to ask Hur questions about his investigation and report.

Robert Hur testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Special counsel Robert Hur was clear on Tuesday that he did not want to play ball with Republicans on whether President Joe Biden is “senile.”

“Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘senile’ as exhibiting a decline of cognitive ability, such as memory, associated with old age,” Republican Rep. Scott Fitzgerald said. “Mr. Hur, based on your report, did you find that the president was senile?”

“I did not. That conclusion does not appear in my report,” Hur replied.

Hur had described Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory” in his final investigative report.

Robert Hur speaks during the hearing Tuesday.

Robert Hur explicitly said he “did not exonerate” President Joe Biden at the end of his yearlong special counsel investigation.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state, elicited the comments while tussling with Hur over his conclusions. She claimed Hur “exonerated” Biden, but the special counsel immediately took issue with the term during a tense exchange.

“This lengthy, expensive and independent investigation resulted in a complete exoneration of President Joe Biden for every document you discussed in your report. You found insufficient evidence that the president violated any laws about possession or retention of classified materials,” Jayapal said.

“You exonerated him,” Jayapal retorted.

“I did not exonerate him. That word does not appear in the report,” Hur said.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal listens during the hearing on Tuesday.

The result of this back-and-forth is that Jayapal spurred Hur to say something that clearly isn’t helpful for Biden, whom she was aggressively trying to defend.

Jayapal brought this up while arguing Hur didn’t have enough evidence to conclude Biden broke the law, in addition to Hur’s determination that a jury would sympathize with the president because of his age and at-times faltering memory.

Rep. Jim Jordan speaks during the hearing on Tuesday.

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan accused President Joe Biden of being motivated by “pride and money” when he allegedly disclosed classified information with a ghostwriter working on his biography.

Biden “shared information with his ghostwriter,” Jordan said, “the guy who was helping Joe Biden get $8 million,” referring to the advance Biden received for his book. Jordan said the money was Biden’s motive “to disclose classified information, to retain classified information.”

According to special counsel Robert Hur’s report, Biden “had strong motivations” to keep notebooks which contained classified information and “consulted the notebooks liberally during hours of discussions with his ghostwriter and viewed them as highly private and valued possessions with which he was unwilling to part.”

Donald Trump’s alleged display of classified information to people working on the memoir of Mark Meadows, including the book’s ghostwriter, in July 2021 is cited in the classified documents indictment against the former president.

“These are the papers,” Trump says in an audio recording referring to a potential attack plan on Iran.

Robert Hur listens during the hearing on Tuesday.

After repeated questioning over his decision to include language about Joe Biden’s memory in his report, Robert Hur said omitting his analysis of the president’s memory would have made the report “incomplete and improper.”

Democrats have sparred with Hur over his analysis of how a jury could perceive Biden to be a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Under questioning from Rep. Adam Schiff, Hur repeatedly said politics “played no part whatsoever” in his decision-making, and that he was tasked only with writing a “confidential” report for the attorney general.

Schiff, a California Democrat, retorted: “You understood that you made a choice. That was a political choice. It was the wrong choice.”

“What you are suggesting is that I shape, sanitize, omit portions of my reasoning and explanation to the attorney general for political reasons,” Hur said.

Rep. Hank Johnson speaks during the hearing on Tuesday.

A Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee accused special counsel Robert Hur of helping Donald Trump’s presidential campaign by issuing a damning report about President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents so he could benefit professionally from a potential Trump presidency.

“Are you a member of the Federalist Society?” Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson asked Hur during a testy exchange, referring to the influential conservative legal group whose members have been picked by Trump for some key seats on the federal judiciary.

“I am not a member of the Federalist Society,” Hur responded.

“But you are a Republican though, aren’t you?” the congressman asked, to which Hur answered yes.

While in office, Trump appointed Hur as US attorney in Maryland, and he later served in Trump’s Justice Department as the principal associate deputy attorney general.

Rep. Adam Schiff speaks during the hearing on Tuesday.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, slammed special counsel Robert Hur over the language he used to characterize President Joe Biden in his classified documents investigation report.

Schiff referred back to Hur’s opening statement where the special counsel said he did not disparage the president in his report.

“But of course you did disparage the president,” Schiff said.

The California Democrat, who is running for a Senate seat, then said that Hur had to have known the political impact his report would have upon its public release and that he could have written it in more objective way.

“And you could’ve chosen just to comment on the president’s particular recall vis-a-vis a document or a set of documents, but you decided to go further and make a generalized statement about his memory, didn’t you?” Schiff asked Hur.

Hur responded by saying that while he could’ve omitted comments about the president’s memory, it would’ve made the report “incomplete” and insisted that politics did not play a role in his writing of the report.

Robert Hur sits before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

In an exchange with Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, Robert Hur said that he did not make a determination as special counsel as to whether President Joe Biden was guilty or innocent.

“In this case, did you reach a conclusion that this man was outright innocent,” Issa asked.

“That conclusion is not reflected in my report, sir,” Hur responded.

Issa followed up, asking, “So you did not reach that conclusion, or it would have been in your report?”

“I just want to make sure the record is complete in that because I think it’s extremely important,” Issa said. “You did not reach an idea that he had committed no wrong, you reached a conclusion that you would not prevail at trial and therefore did not take it forward. Is that correct?”

“Correct, congressman,” Hur said.

Sen. Dick Durbin speaks t

Top Senate Democrats slammed special counsel Robert Hur’s report as “gratuitous” and argued it was not his responsibility to make assessments about President Joe Biden’s mental acuity.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat and chair of the Judiciary Committee, swiped at Hur on Tuesday.

“There’s a clear difference here in treatment of these classified documents by President Biden and President (Donald) Trump. President Trump denied it and tried to evade it and may have concealed some evidence. I don’t know. President Biden, on the other hand, has been found to be cleared in terms of any future action by the Department of Justice,” he said.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, another member of the Judiciary Committee, also criticized Hur’s comments about Biden’s memory as being “worthless.”

GOP Sen. Josh Hawley pushed back against the Democrats’ criticism, telling CNN that Hur had a responsibility to explain why he did not recommend charges.

When asked about the contrast between Biden’s cooperation with law enforcement and Trump’s unwillingness, Hawley defended the former president.“The way the Biden Justice Department has handled this, I think completely bulldozes their case against Trump,” Hawley argued.

Robert Hur testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from New York, asked special counsel Robert Hur whether he felt free and “unrestrained” by Attorney General Merrick Garland to potentially bring charges against President Joe Biden — if warranted.

Hur said while he was aware of the current Office of Legal Counsel policy of prohibiting sitting presidents from being charged with federal crimes, the investigative efforts were his own.

Robert Hur speaks during the hearing on Tuesday.

Special counsel Robert Hur disputed Rep. Matt Gaetz’s characterization that all the elements necessary for a federal criminal violation were met, emphasizing that President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents lacked “intent.”

In a response to Gaetz, a Florida Republican, Hur said:

Rep. Jerry Nadler, right, speaks during the hearing on Tuesday.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked special counsel Robert Hur whether someone could be “a little bit charged with a crime,” saying people had taken Hur’s report “out of context.”

Hur did not recommend charges following his probe into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified material.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, repeatedly invoked conservative icon Ronald Reagan to defend President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.

Former President Reagan also came up in special counsel Robert Hur’s report, which pointed out that Biden — like Reagan — believed his handwritten notes about classified matters were “personal” documents, as opposed to government-produced memos that contain clear classification markings and belong to the US government.

This is a big part of Biden’s defense and one of the reasons why Hur decided that it wasn’t appropriate to indict Biden for illegally mishandling the classified materials in his diaries.

Biden also invoked the Reagan comparison in his private two-day interview with Hur’s investigators in October, according to Hur’s report and the recently released transcript. Biden explained to Hur’s team that he didn’t think he was required to give his personal diaries to the National Archives after the Obama administration ended.

In his report, Hur said, “If this is what Mr. Biden thought, we believe he was mistaken about what the law permits, but this view finds some support in historical practice,” referring to the Reagan precedent.

Robert Hur testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

When questioning special counsel Robert Hur, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan asked Hur why President Joe Biden broke the rules regarding classified documents.

Jordan then went on to suggest that Biden’s motive for breaking the law was to write a book, pointing to a note that Biden had met with a ghostwriter.

“He knew the rules. He broke them because he was writing a book,” Jordan said.

Robert Hur arrives to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Republicans and Democrats sparred during Tuesday’s hearing over whether the White House sought to hide anything in the report from special counsel Robert Hur on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified material.

During his remarks, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin shot back at Republicans’ claim that the White House did not want Hur’s report released — contrasting Biden’s actions with those of former President Donald Trump.

“President Biden did not assert executive privilege or claim absolute immunity from presidential crimes,” Raskin said. “He did not hide boxes of documents under his bed or in a bathtub. He did not fight investigators, nor did he seek to redact a single word of Mr. Hur’s report.”

Republican Rep. James Comer claimed that while they had “little time” to review the transcripts” it is “clear” that the White House did not want Hur’s report to be released.

While the White House did not seek to block the entire report, they did write to Attorney General Merrick Garland days before the report was released, objecting to certain aspects of the report, including “multiple denigrating statements” about the Biden’s memory in the report.

Ultimately, however, the report did make several references to Biden’s memory in explaining why, in part, charges were not brought.

Rep. James Comer talks to Rep. Jim Jordan as former Robert Hur testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

In their opening statements, both the top Republican and Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee overstated some of special counsel Robert Hur’s conclusions from his investigation into Joe Biden.

Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who chairs the panel, claimed that Hur determined that Biden “broke the law” and “unlawfully” held onto classified materials after the Obama administration ended.

“He had a fundamental question to address. Did Joe Biden unlawfully retain classified information? The answer is, yes, he did,” Jordan said, later adding:

“Joe Biden broke the law but because he’s forgetful old man, who would appear sympathetic to a jury, Mr. Hur chose not to bring charges.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, claimed Hur fully exonerated Biden’s conduct.

“President Biden acted responsibly cooperated completely and the decision… to decline criminal charges was relatively straightforward. In short, to borrow a phrase from the last administration, the Hur report represents the complete and total exoneration of President Biden,” Nadler said.

Facts First:Both Jordan and Nadler are stretching the truth about Hur’s conclusions.

It’s clear from Hur’s sweeping 388-page report that he did not completely exonerate the president, as Nadler claimed Tuesday. But the conclusions weren’t as damning and far-reaching as Jordan asserted.

Most importantly, Hur never said explicitly that Biden committed crimes, which Jordan suggested.

Hur found some evidence that Biden willfully retained classified materials after he left the Obama White House. He also uncovered some examples of Biden sharing classified information with his book author.

However, Hur also said his team found plenty of exculpatory evidence that led him to conclude that Biden’s actions weren’t illegal, and ultimately concluded that criminal charges weren’t warranted.

There were enough facts favorable to Biden that would “create reasonable doubt” for a potential jury, and “innocent explanations for the documents that we cannot refute,” Hur wrote in his report.

HouseDemocratsare pushing back againstcomparisonsbetweenPresident JoeBiden’s handling of classified material and the allegedconductoutlined in criminal charges against former President DonaldTrump.

The similarities and differencesbetweenRobert Hur’s investigation and Jack Smith — including thatTrumpis facing criminal charges — have become a focus of fierce debatebetweenallies of the two presidents.

Robert Hur listens as a video of President Joe Biden plays during a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

In dueling video presentations, Democrats and Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee aired videos of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in an effort to showcase verbal gaffes and faulty memories – and their ages.

The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee aired a video montage of recent moments during which Trump misremembered key facts. Included in the mashup was a clip of the former president from last year in which he incorrectly said Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, was the prime minister of Turkey.

Another video showed Trump, in a taped video deposition from 2022, apparently struggling to remember what years he was married to a former wife.

“That is a man who is incapable of avoiding criminal liability. A man who is wholly unfit for office and a man who, at the very least, ought to think twice before accusing others of cognitive decline,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler, the committee’s ranking Democrat.

Earlier in the hearing, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan played a video of Biden responding to the Hur report and said it showed the president making statements that are “directly contradicted” by Hur’s investigation.

The Biden video also showed him having a verbal slip-up in which he mistakenly referred to Egypt’s president as the president of Mexico.

Rep. Jamie Raskin speaks on Tuesday.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee who is sitting in on the hearing today, told CNN that Special counsel Robert Hur is not a memory expert and needs to focus on the facts of this case, which is that he did not recommend charges against President Joe Biden.

Raskin added later that“Special counsel Hur was not named in order to investigate President Biden’s memory and I don’t understand him to be a memory specialist.”

Raskin said he like other Democrats will focus on the contrast today between Trump and Biden.

“Donald Trump tried to hide documents, tried to destroy documents, instructed his lawyer to conceal documents and Special counsel Hur was very clear in contrasting President Biden’s law-abiding behavior with Donald Trump’s reckless corruption and attempts to obstruct his investigation.”

Robert Hur speaks on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Special counsel Robert Hur defended his choice to include an assessment of President Joe Biden’s memory and cognitive skills in his report about Biden’s handling of classified documents.

“My assessment in the report about the relevance of the President’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair,” Hur told lawmakers in his opening statement.

Special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, is now testifying at the GOP-run House Judiciary Committee.

Right now, he’s reading his opening statement. According to a prepared copy of his remarks, Hur will say his assessment in the report of Biden’s memory was “necessary and accurate and fair.”

After opening statements, Hur will be peppered with questions abouthis 388-page reportreleased last month.

Read his opening statement:

As the Robert Hur hearing gets underway, the White House is once again objecting to the report’s claim — and what is in Hur’s opening statement — that President Joe Biden “willfully retained classified materials.”

The White House said that the “evidence and the facts” in the report itself “disprove” that assertion. They are also citing some media reports that suggest Biden, according to a transcript of his interview with Hur, appears to have been “clearheaded” and “went into great detail” during that sit-down.

As CNN has reported last night, the White House is planning to do real-time fact-checking and rapid-response throughout Hur’s hearing.

Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, kicked off Tuesday’s hearing arguing that President Joe Biden “broke the law” with his handling of classified documents, while making biting comments about the president’s old age.

“Joe Biden broke the law. Because he’s forgetful old man who would appear sympathetic to a jury, Mr. Hur chose not to bring charges,” Jordan said.

Jordan also said that Biden “felt he was entitled” to keep classified documents from his time as vice president.

“Joe Biden felt he was entitled, you can almost hear it. You can feel the arrogance in the statement, ‘They’re mine,’” the Ohio Republican said during his opening statement as he read from part of special counsel Robert Hur’s report.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told reporters that Robert Hur is a “Republican hit man” as Democrats prepare to attack the special counsel in today’s hearing for going after President Joe Biden’s memory in his report.

Pressed on the fact Hur will say in his opening testimony that he needed to provide an explanation for deciding against prosecuting Biden hence why he included details about Biden’s memory, Nadler said “that is not true.”

“That is not true, that is not true. This is a Republican hit job,” Nadler said.

He added“remember Bob Hur is the same individual who wrote for Bob Barr, the false summary of the Mueller report that was released a month before the MeullerReport was written. We’re dealing with a Republican hit man.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that special counsel Robert Hur’s report was a “total exoneration” of President Joe Biden.

The Democrat’s comment references Donald Trump’s 2019 statement that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which did not establish that Trump or his campaign associates conspired with Russia to win the presidential election, was a “complete and total exoneration.”

Biden, Nadler said, gave “every classified document” back to the federal government. While Biden probably committed a “verbal slip or two” during his interview with Hur, Nadler said, “I’m not sure any of that matters because when the interview was over, Mr. Hur completely exonerated President Biden.”

The White House said Tuesday the issue of President Joe Biden’s memory had been raised in ways that were “selectively chopped up and edited,” just before special counsel Robert Hur was set to testify on Capitol Hill.

White House Counsel office spokesperson Ian Sams told CNN said that was because “of the confusing way” Hur’s report looking at Biden’s handling of classified documents was written, and that the focus on Biden’s memory was “because the facts and evidence don’t support this case.”

As part of his forceful pushback against some of the characterizations in the report, Biden has publicly stated that Hur was the one to bring his son, Beau, up as part of the interview.

“How in the hell dare he raise that,” a visibly angry Biden said after the report was released. “Frankly, when I was asked that question, I thought to myself, ‘Wasn’t any of their damn business.’”

A transcript of the interview reviewed by CNN shows that Biden mentioned his son as part of a broader discussion of his handling of classified documents.

But Sams argued that Biden had been “asked about his work on his book about his son’s passing, about his work after his vice presidency on the Biden Cancer Initiative, something that was so deeply motivated by Beau’s illness and passing.”

Special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents and delivered a political bombshell with his conclusions about Biden’s memory, is in front of the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee to testify about the case.

Hur’s report last monthdid not charge Biden with a crime, but it painted a picture of a forgetful commander-in-chief who failed to protect sensitive information. The White House blasted some of the criticism as “way out of line.”

Robert Hur and Joe Biden.

Robert Hur, who spent a year investigating the discovery of classified material at President Joe Biden’s former office and Delaware home, will appear on Capitol Hill today to explain his decision to decline to prosecute the president.

That key recommendation – that Biden not be prosecuted for his handling of material when he was a private citizen – was overshadowed whenHurreleased his reportin February because the then-special counsel described the president as a sympathetic elderly man with memory problems. Bidenfired backagainstHur’s note that he was not charged in part because a jury could potentially see him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Get up to speed on the investigation and report ahead of today’s hearing:

Read more about Hur’s report and what it found.

The Justice Department transferred to Congress the transcript of special counsel Robert Hur’s interview of President Joe Biden, which had subpoenaed it, according to a source familiar with the matter.The DOJ didn’t produce the audio recordings, which House Republicans also subpoenaed.

CNN has obtained the full transcript.

CNN previously reported that the DOJprovided House Republicans on the Oversight and Judiciary Committees with some of the documents they subpoenaed but not all of them – namely the transcript and audio recordings of the president’s interview with the special counsel.

Former President Donald Trump has continued railing against the decision not to charge President Joe Biden over his handling of classified material ahead of Robert Hur’s expected testimony in front of the GOP-run House Judiciary Committee.

“Big day in Congress for the Biden Documents Hoax,” the former president said on Truth Social.

Hur will be testifying as a private citizen after the Department of Justice said Monday he had finished up his work last week with the DOJ.

Hur’s report last monthdid not chargeBiden with a crime, but it painted a picture of a forgetful commander-in-chief who failed to protect sensitive information. The White House blasted some of the criticismas “way out of line.”

Robert Hur attends a news conference in 2019.

Special counsel Robert Hur prepared for Tuesday’s testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee with help from the Office of Legislative Affairs at the Justice Department, according to a source close to him.

Hur left the DOJ last week, so it is notable that he got help from DOJ for this hearing, and is another example of the support Hur has received from the department even as the White House objects to some aspects of his report.

Once he left the Justice Department, Hur did additional moot hearings with his attorney, Bill Burck, and others to prepare for Tuesday’s hearing, the source said.

Hur anticipates that Republicans will ask about why he did not charge Biden and that Democrats will chastise him about his comments he included about Biden’s memory.

A source who is familiar with Hur’s preparation for Tuesday’s House hearing said that the Office of Legislative Affairs “provides support to any employee who is testifying before Congress.In this instance, the office’s role was limited since the special counsel retained private counsel for his preparations.”

A source close to Hur says he wants to stick to the traditional approach special counsels take to these hearings where they do not talk about investigative methods or stray from conclusions in the report.

The source said Hur will emphasize that he did not find Biden “innocent” but did not think he could win at trial if he brought charges.

“He is not looking to make anyone happy,” the source said. “It shows he is independent.”

In response to the White House releasing the Biden interview transcript, the source told CNN the White House is worried Hur will reveal additional information under questioning.

House Democrats on the Judiciary Committee will have to strike a delicate balance on Tuesday as they prepare to focus their questions with special counsel Robert Hur on the underlying decision he made not to prosecute President Joe Biden for retaining classified documents.

They will continue their balancing act as Democrats also plan to repeatedly contrast Biden with former President Donald Trump’s mishandling of classified documents.

A source familiar with the Democratic strategy tells CNN that the challenge ahead today is to make sure that the public recognizes that Biden was not prosecuted.

Top Judiciary Democrat Rep. Jerry Nadler is expected to draw a stark contrast with Trump, using video of Trump saying in the past he didn’t recall certain events, an attempt to neutralize questions about Biden’s memory, a source told CNN.

He will also acknowledge some of the questions about Biden’s interview with Hur:

Democrats are hoping that the release of the transcript between Hur and Biden will give context to many of the incidences that Republicans are likely to drill down on in Tuesday’s hearing – including the piece from Hur’s report that Biden struggled to recall the year his son Beau died.

President Joe Biden told jokes and unfurled lengthy detailed stories from his decades-longpoliticalcareer as he fielded questions fromspecialcounselRobert Hurand his investigators over two days last October, a transcript of the interview reviewed by CNN shows.

The deposition is filled with classic Biden tales, from an embarrassing archery episode in Mongolia to tense discussions over his views on the Afghanistan war.

Biden repeatedly said he didn’t know or couldn’t remember how his aides stored or handled sensitive documents, or how they ended up in boxes that were moved to a private office and homes he occupied after leaving the vice presidency.

Asked to explain how he kept track of his personal notes on foreign policy, the president told the investigators: “I have no idea, I wish I could say I was more organized.”

Taken together,the instancesseemingly led the special counsel to describe the presidentin his final reportas presenting like a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly manwith a poor memory” — one who would likely win over a jury. Inthe388-page report released last month, Hur concluded Biden mishandled and improperly disclosed classified information after leaving the vice-presidency. But Hur said that he didn’t believe there wasenough evidence to charge Biden with a crime.

Read more about Biden’s deposition here.

The sun rises through the North Portico of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 11.

White House officials are planning a real-time, rapid-response and fact-checking operation for Robert Hur’s testimony on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, according to a White House official.

Hur’s highly anticipated appearance comes weeks after he released a controversial report on his investigation into Biden’s handling of classified materials. The then-special counsel decided not to bring charges.

Hur wrote Biden would potentially be seen by a jury as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” He said the president was unable to recall, among other things, when his late son Beau died or the dates that he had served as vice president.

The White House has pushed back forcefully on Hur’s report, both in its substance and its motivation.

Robert Hur speaks during a press briefing at the White House in 2017.

Special counsel Robert Hur is expected to tell theGOP-led House Judiciary Committee that his report onPresident Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents “had to include rigorous, detailed, and thorough analysis” of his decision not to recommend criminal charges, according to a draft of his opening statement obtained by CNN.

“I needed to show my work,” Hur will say.

Hur is also expected to address his decision to reference Biden’s memory in his report, saying, “I had to consider the President’s memory and overall mental state, and how a jury likely would perceive his memory and mental state in a criminal trial.”

All eyes on Tuesday will be onspecial counsel Robert Hur, who investigated President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents and delivered a political bombshell with his conclusions about Biden’s memory.

During Hur’s high-stakes hearing today, here are a few things to watch for:

What is he going to say about Biden’s age and memory? Republicans will undoubtedly question Hur over Biden’s mental acuity after his reportpainted a damaging portraitof the president’s memory, which it called “significantly limited” and “hazy” at times. Biden and his allies have forcefully rejected that depiction.

How does Hur differentiate between Biden and Trump’s handling of classified material? Hur will be testifying Tuesday at a congressional hearing about Biden’s mishandling of classified documents. Two days later, there will be a court hearing in Florida about Trump’s allegedly illegal mishandling of classified documents, inthe Mar-a-Lago case. Perhaps the most potent line of attack for Democrats on Tuesday will be Hur’s own explanation for why, essentially, Trump’s behavior was worse than Biden’s.

How will GOP tie this to impeachment? House Republicans are looking for Hur’s public testimony to provide fresh momentum to theirsputtering impeachment inquiryinto Biden. In theirsubpoena to the Justice Departmentfor documents related to Hur’s probe ahead of the hearing, Republicans linked his work to their own investigation, saying they “are concerned that President Biden may have retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involving his family’s foreign business dealings.”

Read up on more key things to look for in Tuesday’s high-stakes hearing.

Robert Hur, who spent the past year as special counsel investigating classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s home and private office, finished up his work last week and is no longer with the Justice Department, according to a department spokesperson.

Hur, a former US attorney appointed by then-President Donald Trump, will testify on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as a private citizen.

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur as special counsel in January 2023. At the time, Hur, who had an extensive career at the Justice Department, had begun working in the private sector in Washington, DC.