Joe Biden has dodged criminal charges for handling classified documents after a report concluded the 46th President took classified information about the US war in Afghanistan and other national security matters.
The documents included a handwritten memo to former President Barack Obama in 2009.
The memo concerned a planned troop surge in Afghanistan but others related to national security meetings.
It is extremely likely the findings will further political division in the US as Donald Trump faces separate charges for taking classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago home.
Joe Biden delivers remarks during an event at the White House in Washington
REUTERS
Classified records were found in 2022 and 2023 at Biden's Delaware home and at a private office used between his service as Obama's Vice President and becoming Commander-in-Chief.
The report contains details about Afghanistan being as bad as the Vietnam War and failing to remember when his son Beau died.
The report by special counsel Robert Hur found that Biden told a writer working on his memoir that he had “just found all the classified stuff downstairs”.
Hur’s report said the conversation created “the best case” for charges against Biden.
The investigator found a number of reasons not to charge Biden, including that the documents were taken home while he had the authority as Vice President.
“Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt,” the report said.
“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.”
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Donald Trump is the favourite to win the Republican nominationREUTERSHur, who served in the Trump administration, was appointed to oversee the probe in January 2023.
However, a number of Republican figures slammed the report's conclusion.
Alex Pfeiffer, communications director for Trump's 2024 campaign, said: "If you're too senile to stand trial, then you're too senile to be President. Joe Biden is unfit to lead this nation."
Nikki Haley, who is Trump's only remaining Republican rival in the ongoing Grand Old Party primary, added: "The double standard is glaring.
"Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump were reckless with classified documents.
"If Biden’s defense is old age and forgetfulness, Trump can easily make the same claim. Trump should quickly hire Biden's lawyers."
Joe Biden is the 46th President of the United States
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The report also noted that Trump's probe differed as the ex-President was turned down "multiple chances" to return the classified documents to avoid prosecution.
However, the White House was left frustrated by the description of his memory in the report.
Biden's special counsel Richard Sauber wrote: "We request that you revisit your descriptions of President Biden's memory and revise them so that they are stated in a manner that is within the bounds of your expertise and remit."
He added: "We do not believe that the report's treatment of President Biden's memory is accurate or appropriate.
"The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events."
Donald Trump is likely to come up against Joe Biden on November 5REUTERSResponding to the report, Biden said in a statement: “The Special Counsel released today its findings about its look into my handling of classified documents.
"I was pleased to see they reached the conclusion I believed all along they would reach – that there would be no charges brought in this case and the matter is now closed.
"This was an exhaustive investigation going back more than 40 years, even into the 1970s when I was a young Senator. I cooperated completely, threw up no roadblocks, and sought no delays.
"In fact, I was so determined to give the Special Counsel what they needed that I went forward with five hours of in-person interviews over two days on October 8 and 9 of last year, even though Israel had just been attacked on October 7 and I was in the middle of handling an international crisis.
"I just believed that’s what I owed the American people so they could know no charges would be brought and the matter closed.
"Over my career in public service, I have always worked to protect America’s security. I take these issues seriously and no one has ever questioned that.”