Prof. Richard Painter Co-authors Commentary on CNN about Special Counsel Robert Hur’s Report on President Biden and Classified Documents

Professor Richard Painter co-authored an opinion piece on CNN about Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Biden and classified documents. In it, Professor Painter and the co-authors agreed with the special counsel’s conclusion that Biden should not be prosecuted for retaining and sharing classified information. But, they took exception to Hur’s comments on Biden’s age and memory as beyond what is necessary. They called these gratuitous and go against Justice Department procedures. They wrote, the “Principles of Federal Prosecution state that ‘federal prosecutors should remain sensitive to the privacy and reputation interests of uncharged parties’ and that ‘prosecutors should strive to avoid unnecessary public references to wrongdoing by uncharged parties.’” They went on to say, “the special counsel regulations governing Hur require him to comply with this fundamental principle. It is also captured in the American Bar Association’s standards of prosecution, which state, ‘The prosecutor may make a public statement explaining why criminal charges have been declined or dismissed but must take care not to … prejudice the interests of … subjects of an investigation.’”