Prosecutors and legal experts are slamming Special Counsel Hur’s “entirely inappropriate” and “totally gratuitous” political cheap shots that came straight from MAGA Republican talking points. One legal expert has flagged that the report “is flatly inconsistent with longstanding DOJ traditions,” with another calling it “exactly what you’re not supposed to do” as a prosecutor, making it clear that Hur was “absolutely” playing politics.
Prosecutors and legal experts are calling out the special counsel for gratuitously attacking the president despite concluding his investigation with no prosecution or indictments.
HuffPost: “Legal analysts on Thursday were stunned by special counsel Robert Hur’s decision to release a report attacking President Joe Biden’s age and memory while also clearing him in the classified documents case.”
Former Attorney General Eric Holder: “Special Counsel Hur report on Biden classified documents issues contains way too many gratuitous remarks and is flatly inconsistent with long standing DOJ traditions.
Had this report been subject to a normal DOJ review these remarks would undoubtedly have been excised.”
Andrew Weissmann, MSNBC legal analyst: “Entirely inappropriate, that is not the role of the Department of Justice. … It is gratuitous. It’s also exactly what you’re not supposed to do, which is putting your thumb on the scale that could have political repercussions.”
Former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal: “Totally gratuitous. … It feels like a too-clever move by the special counsel to try and take some swipes at a sitting president, and it doesn’t sit well with me at all. And I do think that it’s very much in tension with the Justice Department guidelines on special counsels.”
Jeffrey Toobin, CNN legal analyst: “It was outrageous that Herr put in some of that stuff in this report. That had no place in it. … There is no reason why this fairly straightforward case had to be treated this way. … The job of prosecutors is to put up or shut up. … I absolutely do [think he’s playing politics].”
Former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah: “Once Hur said ‘the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,’ he should have stopped. … Totally gratuitous.”
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance: “With a comment narrowly targeted straight at a political argument the GOP is making against Biden & despite his concession he couldn’t disprove innocence. This isn’t what DOJ is supposed to do.”
Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega: “A ‘professional’ prosecutor doesn’t offer gratuitous remarks about someone’s cognitive ability after finding insufficient evidence to indict. Hur’s non-expert opinions are irrelevant.”
National security attorney Bradley P. Moss: “What Robert Hur did in his report with these irrelevant and extraneous remarks is the same thing DOJ used as the basis to fire James Comey in 2017. Seven years later, they did it again. Seriously. Unreal.”
Former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut and former associate deputy attorney general Frederick Baron: “So let’s recognize as partisan talking points the Republican claim that there is some kind of ‘double standard’ in Hur’s declining to prosecute Biden while a Florida grand jury has indicted Trump for obstructing an investigation. This views the special counsel report through a distorted lens for Republicans’ partisan advantage.”
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