During his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, former Special Counsel Robert Hur found himself under intense scrutiny from both sides of the political aisle, with Rep. Adam Schiff leading the charge in questioning the language he used in his report on President Joe Biden’s classified documents case.
Schiff didn’t mince words, accusing Hur of deliberately employing “pejorative” language in his report with full knowledge that it would spark a “political firestorm,” particularly in relation to Biden’s memory.
The exchange between Schiff and Hur highlighted the contentious nature of the investigation:
Schiff: I want to refer back to your opening statement in which you said that you did not disparage the president, your report. But of course, you did disparage the president. You disparaged him in terms you had to know would have a maximal political impact. You understood your report would be public, right?
Hur: I understood, based on comments, that the Attorney General had made, that he had committed to make as much of my report public as consistent with legal policy and legal requirements.
Schiff: And you could have chosen just to comment on the president’s particular recall vis-a-vis a document or a set of documents. But you decided to go further and make a generalized statement about his memory, didn’t you?
Hur: Congressman, I could have written my report theoretically in a way that omitted references to the president’s memory, but that would have been an incomplete and improper report–
Schiff: That wasn’t my question–
Hur: –that did not reflect my analysis–
Schiff: You could have written your report with his, with comments about his specific recollection as to documents or a set of documents. But you chose a general, pejorative reference to the president. You understood when you made that decision, didn’t you, Mr. Hur, that you would ignite a political firestorm with that language, didn’t you?
Hur: Congressman, politics played no part whatsoever in my investigative steps–
Schiff: But you understood nevertheless, didn’t you, Mr. Hur? Mr. Hur, you cannot tell me you’re so naive as to to think your words would not have created a political firestorm. You understood that, didn’t you, when you wrote those words, when you decided to include those words, when you decided to go beyond specific references to documents, you understood how they would be manipulated by my colleagues here on the GOP side of the aisle and by [former President Donald Trump]. You understood that, did you not?
