Tea at Trianon: Prosecutors Decline To Charge ‘Elderly’ Biden Over ‘Poor Memory’

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, February 9, 2024

Prosecutors Decline To Charge ‘Elderly’ Biden Over ‘Poor Memory’

From The Federalist:

Federal prosecutors who investigated President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents declined to press charges despite discovering top-secret records in his Delaware home’s “garage, offices, and basement den.”

On Thursday, Special Counsel Robert Hur unsealed his report to the Department of Justice (DOJ), concluding “that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter” despite records found related to foreign policy in Afghanistan and handwritten notes “implicating sensitive intelligence.” Prosecutors declined to press charges, in part, because “Biden would likely present himself to the jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
“Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt,” Hur’s team wrote in the nearly 400-page report. “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him by — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.” Prosecutors included pictures of where the documents were discovered in Biden’s private residence. (Read more.)

From Just the News:

Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report cited several factors contributing to his decision to decline filing any charges against Biden. One reason Hur provided: Biden’s poor memory.

“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur wrote. “Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him-by then a former president well into his eighties-of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness,” the prosecutor continued.
You can read the report below:

report-from-special-counsel-robert-k-hur-february-2024-2.pdf

Further in the report, Hur noted that President Biden “appeared to have significant limitation” both in recordings with ghostwriter of his memoir—Mark Zwonitzer—in 2017 and during his 2023 interview with the special counsel’s team.

“Mr. Biden's recorded conversations with Zwonitzer from 2017 are often painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries,” Hur’s report said of the recorded memoir planning sessions.

Yet, by 2023, when President Biden sat for a five hour interview with Hur’s team, his memory was “worse,” failing to recall the years of his vice presidency and forgetting the year – 2015 – that his son, Beau Biden, died after a battle with brain cancer, according to the report.

“He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended ('if it was 2013 - when did I stop being Vice President?'), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began ('in 2009, am I still Vice President?'),” Hur wrote, summarizing the interview. (Read more.)

Biden says "my memory is fine." From NECN:

President Joe Biden on Thursday evening strongly disputed new claims by Department of Justice special counsel Robert Hur that he "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials" as a private citizen, and that he had exhibited poor memory during an interview about that material.

"My memory has not gotten worse," Biden told reporters in a nationally televised address at the White House hours after Hur released his report.

"My memory is fine."

"I'm an elderly man, and I know what the hell I'm doing," Biden said, in response to a reporter's question that noted Hur's reference to the president as elderly.

"I've been president and I put this country back on its feet. I don't need his recommendation," Biden said. (Read more.)

From The Gateway Pundit:

Special Counsel Robert Hur on Thursday released a 345-page report on Biden’s stolen classified documents investigation. Joe Biden STOLE SCIF-designated classified documents and improperly stored them at the Penn Biden Center, his Delaware garage, his Virginia home, and his lawyer’s Boston office. At least 5 White House aides, including former White House Counsel Dana Remus were involved in Biden’s classified documents scandal. Hur found that Joe Biden “willfully retained” classified information, however, he decided not to charge him. Hur said there is evidence Biden retained classified notebooks, “knowing he was not allowed to do so.” (Read more.)