Merrick Garland refuses to answer questions about Biden’s ‘poor memory’ in House Judiciary hearing on special counsel interview transcript

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) pressed Garland on the topic during the hearing, “You’re not gonna like this because I’m going to quote from it,” Biggs began.

“[Hur] basically says here he found Mr. Biden to be sympathetic and ... ‘a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.’ So he made a prosecutorial decision that he wasn’t going to prosecute. Are you going to dispute that? You’re not disputing that are you?”

Garland began to dodge the question, not answering in full and Biggs called him out saying that he was being “non-responsive” to the question and continued in his questioning.

“Mr. Biden has not been prosecuted, correct?” Biggs asked. To which Garland answered in the affirmative.

Biggs then said that the rationale for the lack of prosecution was that Biden did appear to be a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory and would not be charged by a jury.

Garland interjected saying that Biden’s memory was part of a “long list” of reasons.

Biggs pressed him more asking for “one more reason” that Biden was not prosecuted.

Garland said he did not want to “get into a discussion about” the Hur report and why the special counsel chose not to prosecute Biden and then added that another reason could be that Biden was “cooperative” with the investigation.

Special Counsel Hur interviewed Biden and the transcripts were released after he did not find the case against Biden to be prosecutable, saying, "We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

"Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness," the report added.

Biden has claimed executive privilege over the audio tapes, with the transcript being reportedly changed to eliminate repeated as well as filler words from the president's testimony to Hur.