Former President Joe Biden, in newly leaked audio of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur, admitted he likely kept a classified document related to Afghanistan after he left the vice presidency for “posterity’s sake.”
Biden first said he didn’t recall why he had the document when asked about it by Hur, who told him it was found in the library of his lake house.
“I don’t know that I knew,” that he had the document, Biden answered, “but it wasn’t something I would have stopped to think about.”
Hur noted that Bob Woodward and Jules Witcover both wrote about the document in their books about him, asking if he wanted to hang onto it because it might be the subject of reporting or “history.”
BIDEN STRUGGLES WITH WORDS, KEY MEMORIES IN LEAKED AUDIO FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR INTERVIEW
“I guess I wanted to hang on to it for posterity’s sake. I mean, this was my position on Afghanistan. I’ve been of the view from a historical standpoint that there are certain points in history, world history, where fundamental things change using technology,” he said.
“So, there are a lot of things that I think are fundamentally changing how international societies function, and they relate a lot to technology.”
After the 80-year-old continued on that subject for a while, Hur interrupted him to get back to the topic of the document.
“No, I’m sorry, that’s why I wanted it,” Biden answered. “It had nothing to with Afghanistan.”
One of the former president’s lawyers then interrupted Hur to say, “For the purposes of a clean record,” he wanted to avoid “getting into speculative areas,” mentioning that Biden at first answered the question about the document by saying he didn’t recall why he had it.
At that point, Hur answered, “I think we should take a break.”
Former President Joe Biden (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In other sections of the audio, Biden seems confused, asking what year his son, Beau Biden, died, and what year he left the vice presidency.
The audio, related to an investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents while vice president, came out after more than a year of congressional lawmakers demanding its release amid questions about the former president’s memory lapses and mental acuity.
The House Judiciary Committee sued Attorney General Merrick Garland in July for the audio recordings, stressing the importance of the “verbal and nonverbal context” of Biden’s answers that could be provided by the audio recordings, especially considering Hur opted against charging Biden after the interview, partly because Biden was viewed as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Hur opted against charging Biden after the interview, in part, because Biden was viewed as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” (Getty Images)
The committee argued at the time that the audio recordings, not merely the transcripts of them, are “the best available evidence of how President Biden presented himself during the interview.”
That lawsuit was filed before Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race in July after he struggled in a June debate with Trump.
Biden had exerted executive privilege over the audio recordings while president.
Hur, who released his report to the public in February 2024 after months of investigation, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents, and he said he would not bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office.
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Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy that Hur said implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Biden for comment.