Classified documents by dog bed, memory troubles and ghostwriter deleting files: Takeaways from Biden report

A report on the Justice Department’s investigation into Joe Biden’s unauthorised retention of classified materials was made public on Thursday – and it was as troubling for the president and his public image as it was vindicating for those who argued he had committed no crimes.

The report was authored by Robert Hur, a former US attorney appointed by Donald Trump and later elevated to the rank of special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Delivered to Congress this week after many months of investigation and preparation, it recommended no criminal charges for the incumbent president, even were he not protected by immunity from prosecution due to his current stature.

It did, however, contain much that will concern many Americans and was overall far from complimentary of the incumbent president.

The investigators painted a picture of a senile president with severe memory issues whose innocence was less clear than his supporters would have hoped, while not necessarily coming across to a potential jury as malicious or criminal.

Let’s take a look at the key takeaways from Mr Hur’s report:

1. Biden’s memory issues are worse than publicly known

This was by far the most damning aspect of the report, in terms of the impact it will have on public perception of the president.

Mr Hur and his team repeatedly refer to Mr Biden struggling to remember significant details about his life — including, heartbreakingly, the exact year in which his son Beau died. He also could not remember which years constituted his term as vice president.

At one point, investigators recall Mr Biden questioning aloud whether he was “still vice president” in 2009 (that was the first year of his term). He also, on the first day of interviews with