Angry:US President Joe Biden held a press conference to defend his ability to do the job.Credit:AP
But while the report found that Biden’s conduct presented serious risks,addressing those risks with criminal charges “is not the proper remedy here”.
“We conclude that the evidence does not establish Mr Biden’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” the report says.
“He did not remember when he was vice president,forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended... and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began,” it says.
“He did not remember,even within several years,when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him.”
This image,contained in the report from Special Counsel Robert Hur,shows a damaged box where classified documents were found in Biden’s garage.Credit:AP
“Among other things,he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry[a former US ambassador to Afghanistan] when in fact,Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”
In an emotional and at times angry response to the report,Biden,81,told reporters that the assertion he wilfully retained classified documents was “not only misleading,it’s just plain wrong”.
There’s even reference that I don’t remember when my son died,” he added,visibly shaken. “How in the hell he dare raise that?”
Hur was appointed against the backdrop of a separate investigation into the mishandling of classified documents involving former president Donald Trump,who has since been charged by Special Counsel Jack Smith and is awaiting trial.
But unlike Trump,who sought to hide and hold on to the documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida,Biden’s representatives contacted the National Archives office to return the documents as soon as lawyers discovered them.
An image in the report showing Biden’s cluttered garage.Credit:AP
Nonetheless,the report is likely to blunt the Democrats’ attack against Trump’s handling of classified documents and has heightened concerns that Biden is too old for another term in the White House.
Loading
Alex Pfeiffer,communications director for Make America Great Again Inc,said Biden was clearly “unfit to lead this nation”.
“If you’re too senile to stand trial,then you’re too senile to be president,” he added.
Trump also hit out at the outcome,saying it was another example of America’s “two-tiered” system of justice.
However,lawyers for the president rejected the special counsel’s characterisation of Biden’s memory,saying it was neither “accurate or appropriate”.
The investigation was based on more than 100 witness interviews. Part of its findings centre on Biden’s handling of classified documents about Afghanistan – namely,the Obama administration’s decision to send additional troops there.
According to the report,Biden retained those documents in his Delaware home after he left office as vice president. He also kept materials documenting his opposition to the troop surge,including a 2009 classified handwritten memo to Obama.
And some information was disclosed to his ghostwriter,who did not have authority to see such material.
Photographs included in the report showed some of the classified Afghanistan documents contained in a worn cardboard box stored in his garage with other items.
Biden could not have been prosecuted as a sitting president,but Hur’s report states that he would not recommend charges against him regardless.
“We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president,” the report said.
Biden said in a statement that he was pleased the special counsel had “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”.
Get a note directly from our foreigncorrespondentson what’s making headlines around the world.Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.