During Tuesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on Special Counsel Robert Hur’s findings in his investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, Special Counsel Hur admitted Biden lied in response to questioning by U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01).
When asked by Rep. Gaetz about statements made by Joe Biden that he “did not share classified information,” Special Counsel Hur stated: “That is inconsistent with the findings based on the evidence.”
Video of Rep. Gaetz’s interaction with Special Counsel Robert Hur at the House Judiciary Committee hearing can be found HERE and below. A rough transcript can also be found immediately below:
TRANSCRIPT
Rep. Gaetz: February 8, the White House question, Mr. President, why did you share classified information with your ghostwriter? The President, I did not share classified information. I did not share it. I guarantee I did not. That’s not true. Is it? Mr. Hur.
Special Counsel Hur: that is inconsistent with the findings based on the evidence? And in my report?
Rep. Gaetz: Yes, it’s a lie, just what regular people would say. Right? Yeah. All right. So the next one, and all the stuff that was in my home was in filing cabinets that were either locked or able to be locked. That wasn’t true either. Was
Special Counsel Hur: that was inconsistent with the findings of our investigation?
Rep. Gaetz: Another lie? People might say, right, because what you’ve put in your report was among the places Mr. Biden’s lawyers found classified documents in the garage was a damaged open box. So here’s what I’m what I’m understanding right. As Mr. Armstrong laid out, you find in your report that the elements of a federal criminal violation are met, but then you apply this senile cooperator theory that because Joe Biden cooperated and the elevator didn’t go to the top floor, you don’t think you get a conviction? And I actually think you get to the right answer in that I don’t think Biden should have been charged don’t think Trump should have been charged. But under the like the senile cooperator theory, Isn’t it frustrating that Biden continues to go out and lie about the basic facts of the report that lay out a federal criminal violation?
Special Counsel Hur: I need to disagree with at least one thing that you said, which is that I found that the the all of the elements were met. One of the elements of the relevant mishandling statute is the intent element. And what my report reflects is my judgment that based on the evidence, I would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury that that intent element had
Rep. Gaetz: Right. But the reason you have that doubt, is that is the senile cooperator theory, the fact that Joe Biden is so inept in responding that you can’t prove the intent, which again, I don’t quibble with that conclusion. But it’s frustrating to be like, Oh, well, this guy’s not getting treated the same way as Trump because the elevators not going to the top floor. So we can’t prove intent, while at the same time Biden goes out there at the White House and says, Well, you know, he just he just you just blatantly lies. And what I’m trying to figure out is whether or not Biden is lying, because he’s still so senile, he hasn’t read your report, or whether it’s a little craftier and a little more devious, and perhaps a little more intentional than we might otherwise think. So I also want to go to this Biden Penn Center, like Did you Did it give concern to you that the Biden Pen Center where all this classified stuff was being mishandled was being floated by foreign governments?
Special Counsel Hur: Congressman, we were concerned with getting to the bottom of of all of the classified documents that were recovered during the course of it them
Rep. Gaetz: like what bothers me is that the money that was paying for the place where the documents were being inappropriately held was the Chinese and it was other foreign countries that did that play into your analysis. Did you? Did you look into the billion dollars in foreign funding sources at the Biden center at UPenn? For example.
Special Counsel Hur: Congressman, we conducted a thorough, impartial and fair investigation. And we were very, very concerned with getting to the bottom of all the relevant questions relating to the recovered search.
Rep. Gaetz: Did you look into the fact that the Chinese were floating the place where this guy was keeping the documents unsecure? Yes or No,
Special Counsel Hur: Congressman, to the extent that we identified evidence that was relevant and significant to our investigation? We put it in our report. Okay.
Rep. Gaetz: It seemed irrelevant to me. Maybe not to you. Another thing that seemed irrelevant to me is this ghostwriter, right, so the ghostwriter purposefully deletes this evidence that seems to be like show culpability of Biden’s crimes, and you don’t charge him? Why did you not charge the ghostwriter with obstructing justice and deleting evidence?
Special Counsel Hur: For a number of reasons that are laid out in the report. But in brief, Congressman, yes. When we when we interviewed the ghost writer, what he did tell us and I’m trying to get the exact language, that one of the things on his mind, one of the things he was aware of was that I had been appointed special counsel and was conducting an investigation.
Rep. Gaetz: So so he didn’t just so everybody knows the ghostwriter didn’t delete the recordings. Just as a matter of happenstance, ghostwriter has recordings of Biden making admissions of of crimes, he then learns that you’ve been appointed, he then deletes the information. That is the evidence, and you don’t charge him.
Special Counsel Hur: That is reflected in the report. And one of the reasons
Rep. Gaetz: like what does somebody have to do to get charged with obstruction of justice by you, if life like deleting the evidence of crimes doesn’t count? What would meet the standard?
Special Counsel Hur: So congressman, as we as we stayed in the relevant chapter of the report, one of the things that Mr. has wanted or did not delete, was transcripts of the recordings that he had created that included in collaboratory, evidence relating to Mr. Biden.
Rep. Gaetz: So if you if you destroy some evidence, but not other evidence that somehow absolves you of the evidence you destroy, like, here’s what I see. zwanziger should have been charged wasn’t Biden and Trump should have been treated equally. They weren’t. And that is the double standard that I think a lot of Americans are concerned about. I see my time has expired. I yield back.
