US lawmakers will grill special counsel Robert Hur on Tuesday, weeks after his report into Joe Biden's handling of classified documents shook Washington.
The report found Mr Biden “wilfully” retained troves of files, but declined to charge him with a crime. Mr Hur said a jury would view the president as a “well meaning, elderly man” with a “poor memory”, in comments that enraged the White House.
Voter concerns over Mr Biden's age mean Republicans will focus on the remarks.
The party has been stoking claims for months that the 81-year-old is not mentally fit to serve a second term in the White House, with polling suggesting that a significant proportion of voters are also worried about Mr Biden's mental acuity.
Mr Hur alleged in his February report that the president struggled to recall major events from his time serving as vice-president, and could not remember when exactly his term in office had begun. The president was quick to refute the report's claims that he was suffering from memory issues, telling reporters: “I'm well-meaning, and I'm an elderly man, and I know what the hell I'm doing.”
While the special counsel said Mr Biden had “wilfully” retained scores of documents, some of which he stored in insecure locations including his garage, a jury was unlikely to convict him. But Republicans have continued to attack Mr Biden and have criticised Mr Hur's refusal to charge him, comparing it with similar charges filed against former President Donald Trump.
“Having a poor memory does not absolve you from violating the Espionage Act. Being old and elderly does not absolve you from violating the Espionage Act,” Florida Rep Byron Donalds said on Fox News on Sunday.
Dan Judy, a Republican strategist and pollster, told the BBC that the party would almost certainly use the proceedings before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to contrast the two men's treatment. He suggested that Mr Trump's allies could seek to portray the decision to charge him and not Mr Biden as a “partisan witch-hunt”.
“Now, the details in the two cases are not analogous, but I could see Republican members trying to drive that argument,” he added. “Something along the lines of ‘you looked at this and decided not to charge President Biden and yet President Trump has been charged for the same thing.'”
In June, Mr Trump was charged with charged seven counts over his handling of classified documents after he left the White House, with a trial potentially scheduled for this summer. House Republicans have also asked Mr Hur to turn over recordings and transcripts of his interviews with Mr Biden, which he made during his year-long investigation.
Meanwhile, the White House was reportedly furious with the references to Mr Biden's memory, which included suggestions that he could not recall when his son, Beau, died. Speaking after publication, a visibly angry Mr Biden refuted the assertion, telling reporters: “How in the hell dare he raise that.”
The BBC's US partner, CBS News, reported that Biden administration officials urged Mr Hur to “revise” some of his language, calling descriptions of the president's memory “inflammatory”. The special counsel refused to revisit the report.
Other Democrats raised questions as to whether Mr Hur's comments were appropriate for a special counsel's report. Eric Holder, who served as attorney general under President Barack Obama, said the references to Mr Biden's age were “inconsistent with long standing [Department of Justice] traditions”.
“Had this report been subject to a normal DOJ review these remarks would undoubtedly have been excised,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
But Mr Judy told the BBC that Republicans were almost certain to leverage questions around Mr Biden's age, noting that they fit “neatly into the election year narrative about him, and is certainly the most sensational finding to come out of Hur's report”.
US media reported that White House officials were sharply critical of Attorney General Merrick Garland, who appointed Mr Hur. Some officials, the reports suggested, said Mr Garland should have challenged passages in the report concerning the president's age.
But speaking to CNN, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who clashed with Mr Trump during his time in office, defended Mr Hur.
“Public outcry about special counsel reports is inevitable because internal reports contain embarrassing details people would prefer not to make public and subjective opinions that anyone is free to question,” Mr Rosenstein said.
— CutC by bbc.com
