Long declination memo from DOJ Special Counsel looking into Prez Biden’s retention of classified materials

Because I am on the road, I have not yet had time to process more than the headlines surrounding the release of the big report by the Justice Department Special Counsel investigating Prez Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.  This Politico piece has a full headline that seems to provide a functional summary of the essential story: “Special counsel passes on charging Biden but paints damning portrait of him: The report criticized Biden’s conduct, saying he improperly took classified material related to the 2009 Afghanistan troop surge and shared classified information with the ghostwriter of his 2017 memoir.”

The political echoes of this report seem certain to last longer than the specific concerns about how Special Counsel Robert K. Hur reached this outcome (which is the first sentence of the report): “We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter.”  But for those with the time to review how this conclusion was reached, the full massive report is available here.  Here is part of the start of the executive summary of the report:

Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen. These materials included (1) marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and (2) notebooks containing Mr. Biden’s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods. FBI agents recovered these materials from the garage, offices, and basement den in Mr. Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware home.

However, for the reasons summarized below, we conclude that the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecution of Mr. Biden is also unwarranted based on our consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors set forth in the Department of Justice’s Principles of Federal Prosecution. For these reasons, we decline prosecution of Mr. Biden.