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For two days last October, President Joe Biden fielded questions from Special Counsel Robert Hur and his investigators, cracking jokes and recounting details about his decades-long political career. A transcript of an interview reviewed by CNN revealed that he had spread the word.
The deposition is full of typical Biden topics, from an embarrassing archery episode in Mongolia to a tense debate over Biden’s views on the war in Afghanistan.
The president also displayed episodes of vague memory, including one highlighted in Mr. Xu’s final report, in which he appeared not to remember the year his son Beau died.
Mr. Biden does not know how his aides stored and handled the classified documents, or how they were stored in boxes that were moved to his private office or home after he left office as vice president. He repeatedly said he didn’t have it or couldn’t remember.
Asked to explain how he kept his personal notes on foreign policy, the president told investigators: “I don’t know. I wish I could say it was more systematic.”
Taken together, these cases suggest that the special counsel’s final report describes the president as a “sympathetic, well-meaning old man with a poor memory,” a figure likely to win favor with jurors. It seems to have been described.
In a 388-page report released last month, Ho concluded that Biden mishandled and improperly disclosed classified information after he resigned as vice president. But Ho said he didn’t think there was enough evidence to charge Biden with a crime.
Despite its tendency to criticize, Mr. Xu’s report resonated in political circles for portraying the president as a man of endless turmoil. The White House and Biden himself expressed anger at the characterization, as Republicans capitalized on it while lamenting the lack of charges.
Biden’s repeated and often off-topic monologues during interviews with Heo’s team were notable given the high stakes in Heo’s investigation of the sitting president. Lawyers typically advise their clients to keep answers short in depositions, but Biden appears to be leaning toward a strategy from his time in the Senate, filibustering his answers with lengthy answers during the allotted five-hour interview time. This was agreed upon in advance between Mr. Huh and Mr. Biden’s personal opinion. White House lawyer.
The tone of the interview does not appear to be hostile, according to the transcript. The discussion was punctuated by laughter as Biden cracked a joke.
The president joked that “the FBI knows more about my house than I do,” and told prosecutors that “I have my arm around (South Carolina Republican Sen.) Lindsey Graham,” so he took photos. He said that he knew that the Pope was old, and called the Pope “.” It’s my ticket. “I just hope they don’t find any risqué photos of his wife in a swimsuit” as the FBI searches his home and office multiple times.”
Biden has stressed that he never intentionally kept classified documents after leaving office. He explained that he relies on his aides to handle sensitive documents, including deciding what to take with him when he leaves office.
Mr. Biden asked out loud about his time as vice president, trying to remember the timeline, according to the transcript. But the most explosive claim about Biden’s memory in the report was that the president “couldn’t remember when his son Beau died, even within a few years.”
Records show the president brought up his son amid a broader debate about what to do with classified documents as he ponders his future after leaving public office for the first time in 50 years. Asked where he kept the documents he was working on, Biden began with a story that set out the background of the 2017-2018 era. He said the president raised his son, Beau, and encouraged Beau to continue his political career.
“Remember, within this period of time, my son is either going to be deployed or he’s going to die,” Biden said, according to the transcript. When the president brought up his son’s death, he remembered the month and day. “What month did Beau die? Oh my God, May 30th.th” Several people in the room interjected, reminding her that her son had died in 2015.
The confusing years in the answers appear to cover the years Biden was deciding his political future while dealing with his son’s death from cancer. He did not run for president at the end of the Obama administration, ceding to Hillary Clinton. Then, he said, the Trump era inspired him to run.
As evidence that Biden knew there was classified information in the garage, Herr cited a recorded conversation between Biden and the ghostwriter in which Biden said he “found all the classified information downstairs.” listed the record. Mr. Hoar said Mr. Biden appeared to be referring to documents about the Afghan troop surge that FBI agents later found in a garage.
But Biden phrased the comment differently during the interview. When investigators asked the president if he remembered “finding something classified downstairs from him,” the president said “no.”
“The only thing I remember is that I wanted to make it clear to him that I didn’t want what I just heard…I didn’t want to mention anything like that. That was confidential,” Biden said of discussing the presidential campaign. his book.
The president continued, “I haven’t written it — it’s not classified in the sense of classified, but I won’t write about it, please don’t write about it.” That’s off the record. That’s not what I want to talk about in the book about Bo. ”
Biden revealed little in the interview about how the classified documents were discovered in his post-vice presidential office or at his homes in Delaware and Virginia, records show. He repeatedly stated that he did not remember. The vice president’s official residence and official residence during the final stages of the Obama administration.
When the special counsel repeatedly asked Biden how the box containing classified documents got to his home, Biden replied, “How did these materials get into this box? “Do you remember how it got into the garage?” asked the president pointedly.
“No, I don’t remember how it happened. I don’t remember how that battered box got into the garage,” Biden said.
Biden also cited key anecdotes that Hsu gleaned from questioning other witnesses, such as how longtime adviser Steve Ricchetti packed the boxes into a minivan to take them from the U.S. Naval Observatory, the vice president’s official residence. He also said he didn’t remember.
Records showed investigators at times appeared to have trouble maintaining control as Biden ran out of time with lengthy answers. Asked about his use of office space at the Naval Observatory mansion, Biden spent about 10 minutes talking about everything from his work to passing the Violence Against Women Act to explaining his first job at Delaware State University out of law school. I started telling the story. Hard.
In one instance, Mr. Xu ran out of time allotted for an interview and tried to induce the president to remind him whether he knew that certain classified documents were kept at his residence in Delaware.
Instead of answering questions, Biden began talking about a Corvette kept in the garage where some documents were found. The president then began talking about the fun of electric vehicle technology and how fast it can go from 0 to 90 mph.
Mr. Hua politely interrupted and said, “Sir, I would love to hear more about this matter, but I have a few more questions.”
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