President Biden’s lawyer, Bob Bauer, accused special counsel Robert Hur of treating the commander in chief as weak in his 388-page report.
Bauer insisted that the 81-year-old president was not affected by memory problems and dismissed Hur’s report as a “shabby job.”
“This is a report that’s off the rails — a shabby work product,” Bauer, who rarely gives public interviews, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday.
“Along with the conclusion of the law comes a flood of characterization, misrepresentation of facts, [and] pejorative comments about the president that are inconsistent with DOJ policy and norms,” he added. “This is not what prosecutors do.”
Despite his harsh criticism of Hur’s report, Bauer praised its legal analysis as “passionate and correct.”
Hur concluded that Biden “intentionally kept and disclosed classified material,” but declined to press charges citing precedent, Biden’s cooperation and, controversially, that a jury would likely see him as “a well-intentioned old man with a failing memory.”
Bauer revealed that he never tried to hide the 388-page report, which was released to the public last Thursday, accompanied by a letter written by Bauer and Biden’s special counsel, Richard Sauber, that slammed some of its findings.
Stating that he was in the room when Hur grilled Biden for about five hours last year, Bauer took issue with the special counsel’s testimony about the event.
Bob Bauer called the report a “shabby job.” CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images
“I remember from that interview a president who engaged with the questions directly and gave his best recollection,” Bauer said.
“The special counsel’s decision to cherry-pick in a very misleading way some of the references you’re talking about here is an example of what I call a very shabby work product,” Bauer added.
Bauer also claimed that during an interview with Hur last October, the president was able to choose some of the special counsel’s questions.
“There were several times when the special counsel … asked a question that the president chose as a logical thing, he showed that the question had no logical basis,” Bauer said.
“I’m not immune to the special counsel’s failure to ask the right questions and think for himself, he has a mental acuity problem, I just think he’s asking bad questions.”
President Biden was furious over Robert Hur’s report last week. Reuters
Biden was concerned about aspects of Hur’s report, particularly the part where the special counsel claimed he “doesn’t remember, even in years, when his son Beau died.”
“How dare he bring that up? Frankly, when I was asked that question, I thought it was none of their damned business,” said President Biden at a press conference last Thursday.
Bauer sighed when asked whether the Biden team would agree to the Justice Department releasing some transcripts of Hur’s interviews.
Robert Hur raised questions about President Biden’s forgetfulness in his 388-page report. AP
He was also evasive when asked whether Biden was taking action against his former aide, whom he blamed for the classified documents debacle.
Some of the criticism leveled by Biden allies against Hur, a former Trump-appointed US attorney for Maryland, bears similarities to his predecessor’s recent complaints against the Justice Department.
The Biden campaign has sought to highlight some of former President Donald Trump’s mental weaknesses on the campaign trail. Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump has attacked the DOJ for launching a rigged “witch hunt” against him as he faces a total of 91 criminal charges, including from the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga. and Manhattan.
“I am not arguing that the system is rigged. We are looking at this specific performance by the special counsel in this case,” Bauer responded.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
