The special counsel who called into question Joe Biden’s age and competence in his report on how the US president handled classified documents after his years as vice president is set to be questioned himself on Tuesday.
It comes as House Republicans seek to keep a spotlight on the unflattering assessment of the president.
Robert Hur will appear before the Judiciary Committee to take hours of questions from Republicans and Democrats on his 345-page report, made public last month, in which he concluded that Mr Biden should not face criminal charges for his handling of sensitive government information when he was vice president.
The Associated Press reviewed a transcript of the Biden interviews, which were being turned over to Congress by the Justice Department just hours before the hearing.
Mr Hur will say in prepared remarks that he was aware of the need to explain why he had decided not to charge the president.
“The need to show my work was especially strong here,” he says in his prepared remarks.
“The Attorney General had appointed me to investigate the actions of the Attorney General’s boss, the sitting President of the United States.
“I knew that for my decision to be credible, I could not simply announce that I recommended no criminal charges and leave it at that. I needed to explain why.”
Mr Hur cautioned that he would not discuss investigative steps or veer from the contents of the report. He said “the evidence and the President himself put his memory squarely at issue”.
Mr Biden told investigators he didn’t remember finding any classified material in his home after his vice presidency or telling his ghostwriter that he found “classified stuff downstairs,” Mr Hur said.
And Mr Biden also didn’t remember how the documents about Afghanistan got into his garage, Mr Hur said.
“My assessment in the report about the relevance of the President’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair.
“Most importantly, what I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe. I did not sanitise my explanation. Nor did I disparage the President unfairly,” Mr Hur said.
Mr Hur, in his report, detailed how his findings about Mr Biden were far different from those of special counsel Jack Smith about Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has been charged with wilfully retaining classified documents.
FBI agents searched Mr Trump’s Florida estate in 2022 and removed boxes of documents marked as classified after he refused multiple requests from the National Archives to return them.
Trump hyped Tuesday’s “Big day in Congress for the Biden Documents Hoax,” while mischaracterising his conduct.
“The DOJ gave Biden, and virtually every other person and President, a free pass,” he said. “Me, I’m still fighting!!!”
The transcript also offered a rare window into the mind of a sitting president, revealing Mr Biden’s humour and obsessions, including his beloved Corvette and his keen interest in construction work at his home in Wilmington.
Mr Biden, by his own admission, has retained such a sprawling assortment of photos, documents and artifacts from his more than 50 years in public life that he can’t keep track of everything.
The president first sat down with Mr Hur during a time of crisis, one day after the devastating Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
He entered the first day of the interview having just gotten off the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, part of a series of calls meant to prevent the attack from spiralling into a wider regional confrontation.
At multiple points, when Mr Hur suggested a pause, Mr Biden encouraged prosecutors to keep going, saying, “I’ll go all night if we get this done.”
Confusion over the timing of the death of Mr Biden’s adult son Beau — who died May 30, 2015 — was highlighted by Mr Hur in his report as an example of the president’s memory lapses.
But the transcript shows that Mr Hur never asked Mr Biden about his son specifically, as a visibly angry Mr Biden had suggested in comments to reporters the day the report was released.
“How in the hell dare he raise that,” Mr Biden said of Mr Hur. “Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business.”
The Department of Justice redacted information about other people involved in the case, and the National Security Council and the State Department blacked out some details relating to sensitive intelligence and foreign affairs matters.
Before the redactions, the transcript had been classified as top secret and barred from dissemination to foreign nationals.
Lawmakers on both sides will try to turn the hearing to their political advantage.
Mr Hur will be the rare witness likely to be vilified all around, by Republicans angry over his decision not to charge the president, and by Democrats for his commentary about Mr Biden.
