By Alec Hernandez and Megan Lebowitz -
NBC News
Special counsel Robert Hur pointed out the differences between the investigations into the handling of classified documents by President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in a section of his report this Thursday.
The Hur report said Trump's case was different from Biden's because
the former president allegedly "obstructed justice"
after being given opportunities to return classified documents.
[Biden did not even remember when his son died, according to the special prosecutor. But he questions it: “My memory is fine”]
“Most notably, after receiving multiple opportunities to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite,” the report says.
“According to the indictment, he not only refused to return the documents for months, but he also
obstructed justice by recruiting others to destroy evidence and then lying about it.”
The report compared Trump's alleged behavior to Biden's and described the ways in which
the president cooperated with the special counsel over the course of the investigation.
“To the contrary, Mr. Biden alerted authorities, turned over classified documents to the National Archives and the Department of Justice in 2022 and 2023, consented to the search of multiple locations, including his homes, allowed the seizure and review of notebooks handwritings that he believed to be his personal property, and in many other ways he cooperated with the investigation.”
A lawyer for Trump declined to comment to NBC News, sister network of Noticias Telemundo, about Hur's distinction between the two investigations.
[The caucuses in Nevada only have Trump on the ballot. He is “undemocratic” but not illegal, experts say]
A member of Bob Bauer's team, who serves as Biden's personal adviser, referred NBC News to a statement that read in part: “The special counsel also noted the president's full cooperation, including the president's unprecedented decision to open all the rooms of his family home and beach house to extensive FBI searches, as well as a voluntary interview conducted over two days.”
Trump wrote Thursday that the Hur report is indicative of “a two-tier justice system and selective prosecution.”
“I collaborated with the researchers.
Corrupt Joe Biden did not;
Quite the opposite, following the usual and corrupt Democratic manual,” Trump stated, despite prosecutors' statements that he did not hand over the documents.
[The US nuclear secrets in Trump's bathroom: 11 keys to the accusation of the former president due to classified documents]
The classified Trump documents case was investigated by an independent special prosecutor, Jack Smith, and Hur's report acknowledged that "it is not our role to evaluate the pending criminal charges against Mr. Trump."
Trump was accused in a superseding indictment last year of attempting to “obstruct FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued withholding of classified documents.”
Trump was charged with a host of criminal charges, including counts of intentional withholding of national defense information,
conspiracy to obstruct justice
, and corrupt concealment of a document or record.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
[They reveal the 37 charges against Trump: they accuse him of taking papers with military and nuclear secrets and showing them to other people]
Biden said during his remarks Thursday that he was “especially pleased” that Hur's report “made clear the stark differences between this case and Donald Trump.”
The president cited the section of Hur's report that explained how the investigations were different and added: “The bottom line is that the special prosecutor in my case decided not to pursue any charges.
“This matter is now closed.”