Special counsel calls out Biden's 'faulty memory'; his attorneys slam that as false, 'inflammatory'

The account of President Joe Biden's memory is a striking and disputed part of a 345-page report issued Thursday by the federal prosecutor who spent a year investigating his handling of classified information while out of office.

Special counsel Robert Hur wrote that his assessment of Biden's mental acuity and power of recall — described as sparse, apparently «hazy» and, in one interaction, so bad that the president could not recall «even within several years» when his oldest son had died — informed the decision not to recommend charges.

Within hours of Hur's report being made public, Biden's reported memory problems were attracting notice in the political arena and the media — including from Biden's critics.

Hur's language also drew a fierce rebuke from Biden's attorneys, who called it wrong and «inflammatory,» and Biden, reacting to the report later on Thursday, raised the specter of Hur's potential partisanship when he called Hur a «Republican counsel,» referring to the prosecutor's background.

Broadly speaking, Hur concluded that «no criminal charges are warranted» after his investigation, which nonetheless «uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified information after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.»

That's because, Hur wrote, the «evidence does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.»

The White House had emphasized from the beginning that it would cooperate with investigators. Biden himself repeatedly denied any personal wrongdoing and has said he was «surprised» to learn of the existence of the documents, which he returned after they were found.

In his report, Hur wrote that he had considered the perception problem a prosecution might face with