Special counsel Robert Hur to testify publicly on Biden investigation

Special counsel Robert Hur will appear publicly before the House Judiciary Committee on March 12 to answer questions about his investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified records.

The hearing, confirmed by a source familiar, comes as Republicans have called his failure to recommend charges for Biden part of a broader “double standard” amid former President Trump’s prosecution on Espionage Act charges.

In a joint statement last week, House GOP leadership, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), argued that the special counsel’s decision to not charge the president for his handling of classified materials “exposes a two-tiered system of justice with politically motivated charges while carrying water for another amid similar allegations.”

Republicans have also made it clear they are eager to ask Hur about his comments on Biden’s memory.

Three House committees on Monday asked Hur to turn over recordings and transcripts from his interview with Biden.

“Although Mr. Hur reasoned that President Biden’s presentation ‘as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory’ who “did not remember when he was vice president’ or ‘when his son Beau died’ posed challenges to proving the President’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the report concluded that the Department’s principles of prosecution weighed against prosecution because the Department has not prosecuted ‘a former president or vice president for mishandling classified documents from his own administration,’” House Oversight and Accountability Chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) wrote in a letter.

“The one ‘exception’ to the Department’s principles of prosecution, as Mr. Hur noted, ‘is former President Trump.’ This speaks volumes about the Department’s commitment to evenhanded justice.”