What to watch out for during Robert Herr’s hearing: 4 important questions

CNN
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All eyes on Tuesday will be on Robert Hur, the special counsel who investigated President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents and made political bombshells in his conclusions about Biden’s memory.

The special counsel is scheduled to testify before the Republican-run House Judiciary Committee, where he will be asked questions about the 388-page report released last month.

After a year-long investigation, Ho concluded that Biden mishandled classified materials and inappropriately disclosed classified information as a private citizen. However, Ho said there was not enough evidence to prosecute Bidenm and that he would not have filed charges even if the Justice Department had given permission to indict a sitting president.

But it was Heo’s assessment of Biden’s cognitive abilities that shocked all of Washington. He described Biden as “a well-meaning older man with a poor memory” as he described the uphill battle facing prosecutors trying to convince potential jurors that Biden was a criminal.

Here are four key takeaways from Tuesday’s high-stakes hearing:

What will Mr. Hsu say about Mr. Biden’s age and memory?

Republicans will no doubt question Biden’s mental acuity after Hur’s report painted a damaging picture of the president’s memory as “severely limited” and “vague.” .

Biden and his allies forcefully rejected the false memory portrayal, but Republicans quickly used the report to make Biden’s age, among other things, a key attack on the 2024 presidential race. They argued that Biden was unfit for the job because of his focus on the matter. (At 81, Biden is the oldest U.S. president in history, while Donald Trump is only a few years younger at 77).

In addition to calling Biden an “elderly man with a poor memory,” the report also said that when the president met with Xu in his office in October, Biden asked when his son Beau died and He also said he did not remember exactly how many years he served as vice president under Barack. Mr. Obama.

A visibly furious Biden then responded to reporters: And I’m an older man. And I know what I’m doing. ”

“How on earth could he say something like that?” Biden asked about the report’s mention of Beau’s death. “When he’s gone, no one needs to be reminded.”

White House officials and Biden’s personal lawyer have called the report’s claims about the president’s memory inappropriate and inaccurate, noting that the interview took place shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Biden insisted he was very involved despite everything else going on. .

In light of Huh’s comments about Biden’s mental state, some House Republicans are calling on the vice president and the Cabinet to violate the 25th Amendment, arguing that the president appears unable to carry out the duties of his office. They are demanding that Biden be removed from office. Republicans haven’t gone that far.

How does Mr. Hsu distinguish the handling of classified materials between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump?

Mr. Xu is scheduled to testify at a Congressional hearing on Tuesday about Mr. Biden’s mishandling of classified documents. Two days later, a court hearing will be held in Florida regarding allegations of illegal handling of President Trump’s classified documents in the Mar-a-Lago scandal brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

The similarities and differences between the two investigations, and the fact that Trump was indicted but Biden was not, have been the subject of intense political debate and bickering in Washington. (Mr. Trump has maintained his innocence.)

Perhaps the most powerful line of attack for Democrats on Tuesday will essentially be Ho’s own explanation of why Trump’s actions were worse than Biden’s. In his report, he went out of his way to point out “significant differences” between the two investigations and how Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump took different paths.

“After being given multiple opportunities to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite.…By contrast, Mr. Biden sent classified documents to the National Archives and the Department of Justice. He has cooperated with the investigation by submitting his application, consenting to searches of multiple locations including his home, and responding to voluntary interviews.” Heo wrote. .

Will Mr. Xu intend to further emphasize these differences while answering questions from lawmakers? His tone on this and how he characterizes President Trump’s actions will be closely watched, especially by Biden’s allies.

Still, Republicans will surely seize on the fact that while Trump has been indicted, Biden has not.

This adds to a rhetoric that President Trump has put at the forefront of his campaign: baseless accusations that the Justice Department and law enforcement agencies are being “armed” against him and other conservatives. There is. He has used this argument as a sword to attack all four of his pending criminal cases.

House Republicans are looking forward to Huh’s public testimony in order to give new momentum to the volatile impeachment inquiry into Biden.

In a subpoena for documents related to the Hoh investigation submitted to the Justice Department ahead of the hearing, the Republican Party linked Hoh’s activities to its own investigation and said, “President Biden has identified certain “We are concerned that he may have been in possession of confidential documents related to the country.” ”

The Justice Department provided some, but not all, of the documents subpoenaed by Republicans to the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees, including records of Biden’s meetings with the special counsel, according to a letter obtained by CNN. It was an audio recording.

According to the letter, the first part includes a transcript of the December 2015 call that outlined the purpose of the call between the then-Ukrainian prime minister and Vice President Biden, as well as key points and transcripts of the call that were privately available to members of Congress. It is said to include a dictionary. .

Republicans are using these documents as part of the impeachment inquiry, specifically alleging that Biden abused his power to remove a senior Ukrainian prosecutor over his investigation of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and for threatening the president’s son, Hunter. They are trying to associate it with false accusations. on the board. These claims have been repeatedly debunked since they first surfaced in 2019.

“No jury could reasonably conclude that the content of the phone call between Mr. Biden and the Prime Minister of Ukraine was national defense information,” Ho’s report said. The two leaders exchanged pleasantries, and the prime minister praised Biden’s speech to the Ukrainian parliament on December 9, 2015. They did not participate in substantive policy discussions. ”

The Justice Department also provided House Republicans with correspondence between the department and the White House and President Biden’s personal advisers regarding Huh’s report. Republicans subpoenaed these documents out of concern that restrictions were placed on Mr. He claims that this is because he is there.

Over 15 months, Republicans conducted thousands of bank records and documents, as well as more than 40 interviews with Biden’s family, business associates, government officials, Justice Department officials, and an Internal Revenue Service whistleblower. , failed to reveal evidence of the core suspicion that the president had used the information. His government powers are given to him for personal financial gain or to serve his family’s overseas business interests.

Since Republicans took back the House majority in 2023, every investigation route has gone through the president’s son. But Hunter Biden failed to provide conclusive evidence to Republicans in a deposition last month, instead telling Republicans in the latest round of testimony that the president had no involvement in his family’s overseas business dealings. He became a witness.

How will Ho Lu handle his turn in the spotlight?

Robert Herr isn’t a household name, but this is probably the biggest moment of his career.

During the Trump administration, when he served as Maryland’s federal attorney from April 2018 to February 2021, he appears to have only attended one White House press conference. His statements from the White House podium were powerful, but the gap between April 2018 and February 2021 is a cloud. Press conferences and heated debates in Congress in front of lawmakers looking for their talking moments.

Mr. Xu is the third special prosecutor to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in the past five years, and the previous two examples illustrate different possible strategies for Mr.

Robert Mueller testified about the Trump-Russia investigation in 2019, repeatedly asking members of Congress to find answers in the report and dodging questions. He refused to even read portions of the report in response to questions from Democratic lawmakers who sought soundbites about Trump’s misdeeds. This hearing left many wondering whether anything had been accomplished.

During his testimony last year, John Durham, who investigated the origins of the Russia investigation, was proactive in providing substantive answers to questions from lawmakers and was open to dialogue with them. In one memorable moment, he went out of his way to protect former Attorney General Bill Barr from President Trump’s public attacks, even though he could have strictly followed what was written in the report. I tried my best.

Mr. Hsu’s approach will determine how easy or difficult it will be for lawmakers to elicit the political moment they desire.

Mr. Hsu stepped on a political minefield by including commentary on Mr. Biden’s mental state in his report, which some legal experts and White House lawyers say is illegitimate. He showed that he is not afraid of. But just five days after the president stunned many on Capitol Hill with his fiery State of the Union speech, he will be forced to explain his conclusions about Biden’s weaknesses.