‘What Biden did is outrageously criminal’: Trump, GOP leaders fume over POTUS not being charged for docs mishandling

Hitting out at Joe Biden after the release of Hur's report, Trump declared that the federal case involving classified documents against him should be withdrawn.

Hitting out at US President Joe Biden after the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur's report, Donald Trump on Thursday declared that the federal case involving classified documents against the Republican frontrunner should be withdrawn.

Former US president Donald Trump (left) and US President Joe Biden (AFP)

In a 345-page report, Hur said that while Biden had “wilfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency,” he would not be criminally charged, as “at trial, 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”.

Taking to his social media platform Truth Social, Trump called on the Department of Justice to "unify" the nation by ending the probe, in which the former US President entered a not guilty plea to 40 charges over allegations that he unlawfully kept classified papers after leaving the office.

"If Special Counsel Jack Smith wants to do good for our Country, and help to unify it, he should drop all Litigation against Joe Biden's Political Opponent, ME, and let our Country HEAL," Trump, who is set to go to trial in May 2024 to face the 40 federal charges against him, wrote.

"This would be a far bigger and better achievement than anything he has ever done, and will be easy for the Great Patriots of our Country to understand in light of Special Counsel Robert Hur's Document Report on Joe Biden, where the evidence is overwhelming that he 'willfully retained' important documents!" he added.

The ex-US President further claimed that Biden documents case “is 100 times different and more severe” than his.

“THIS HAS NOW PROVEN TO BE A TWO-TIERED SYSTEM OF JUSTICE AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL SELECTIVE PROSECUTION! The Biden Documents Case is 100 times different and more severe than mine. I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more. What Biden did is outrageously criminal—He had 50 years of documents, 50 times more than I had, and 'WILLFULLY RETAINED' them,” Trump wrote in another post.

“Deranged Jack Smith should drop this Case immediately. ELECTION INTERFERENCE,” he stressed.

GOP leaders declare Biden ‘unfit’ for the Oval Office

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other prominent members of the Republican Party claimed that Biden is "unfit" for the position following the release of Hur'sreport that outlined the president's memory issues.

In a joint statement, the GOP leaders claimed that Hur's decision to not charge Biden for his handling of classified materials “exposes a two-tiered system of justice with politically motivated charges while carrying water for another amid similar allegations” .

“Among the most disturbing parts of this report is the Special Counsel’s justification for not recommending charges: namely that the President’s memory had such ‘significant limitations’ that he could not convince a jury that the President held a ‘mental state of willfulness’ that a serious felony requires,” the GOP leaders said.

“A man too incapable of being held accountable for mishandling classified information is certainly unfit for the Oval Office,” they added.

Meanwhile, Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., sent a letter to Attorney General Garland and shared her "grave concerns" following Hur's report, according to Fox News.

"After concluding that President Biden knowingly and willfully removed, mishandled, and disclosed classified documents repeatedly over a period of decades, Mr. Hur nevertheless recommended that charges not be brought against him," Tenney wrote while calling special counsel's reasoning “alarming”.

"We don't prosecute or decline to prosecute people based on their personalities, or on the public's anticipated perception of them," she wrote. "If Special Counsel finds that the evidence forms a reasonable basis to bring charges, he must do so."

Tenney stated that the DoJ "cannot ethically bring charges against former President Trump because he has mental acuity and a forceful personality, and decline to bring charges against President Biden because of his cognitive decline."

She added that Biden needs to be charged, unless “he is not mentally competent to stand trial”.

Calling it a "glaring" double standard, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley used the report to criticise both Biden and her Republican rival Trump. "Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump were reckless with classified documents," she tweeted. “If Biden’s defense is old age and forgetfulness, Trump can easily make the same claim. Trump should quickly hire Biden’s lawyers.”

In a subsequent tweet, she called on Biden to take a mental competency test, and immediately share it with the public.

Biden claps back at special counsel's report that questioned his memory, docs handling

In his report, Special Counsel Hur painted a picture of a man who was unable to recall either the year his loving son Beau passed away or the period he served as vice president under Barack Obama's administration, rejecting Biden's claim that he is still capable and qualified to serve another term.

“Mr. Biden's memory was worse in his interview with our office,” the report states. “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended ('if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?'), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began ('in 2009, am I still Vice President?’),” the report stated.

However, in a speech to the nation on Thursday night, Biden maintained that his memory was "fine" and defended his bid for re-election, claiming to be the "most qualified person in this country to be president."

"I'm well-meaning, and I'm an elderly man and I know what the hell I'm doing," stated Biden. "I've been president. I put this country back on its feet. I don't need his recommendation. My memory is fine."