"(3) The term "personal records" means all documentary materials, or any reasonably segregable portion thereof, of a purely private or nonpublic character which do not relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President. Such term includes- (A) diaries, journals, or other personal notes serving as the functional equivalent of a diary or journal which are not prepared or utilized for, or circulated or communicated in the course of, transacting Government business;"
"Then, two folders of documents pertaining to Afghanistan found in a ratty box in Biden's garage. There was no direct evidence that Biden wilfully retained these documents, only to store them in a mostly-destroyed box collecting dust. Hur's imagined motive for why Biden would - vindication that he was right about Afghanistan - is nonsensical, given that Biden had better vindication inside a desk drawer in his house, the 40-page memo Biden sent President Obama warning him it'd be a mistake to surge troops in Afghanistan."
Robert Hur focused on two categories of classified material found at Joe Biden's home: classified entries in Biden's diaries and two Afghanistan-related folders stored in a damaged box in the garage. Hur repeatedly labeled the diaries as "notebooks," despite the Presidential Records Act explicitly excluding diaries from presidential records. DOJ precedent with Ronald Reagan's diaries prevented charging those diary entries. The Afghanistan folders showed no direct evidence of willful retention; they were stored in a mostly-destroyed box. Hur highlighted a brief 66-word exchange with Biden's ghostwriter about "classified stuff" despite Biden having a 40-page memo to Obama warning against a troop surge.
Read at Emptywheel
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]