# Hur Report > [!abstract] 🏛️ Official government report > **Issued by:** Special Counsel [[Robert Hur]], [[Department of Justice]] · **Legal basis:** 28 C.F.R. § 600.8(c) · **Released:** February 8, 2024 The 388-page report of the special counsel appointed in January 2023 to investigate [[Joe Biden]]'s retention of classified documents from his vice presidency. ## What it found Hur found evidence that Biden "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials" after leaving the vice presidency, including material on Afghanistan policy — and **declined to bring charges**, concluding that the evidence did not establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and that a jury would be unlikely to convict. Part of that reasoning was the line that defined the report: Biden would present to a jury as "a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." ## Why it mattered politically The memory passage, not the charging decision, became the report's legacy. Biden answered it the same evening in a hastily arranged address — "My memory is fine" — and the question it raised ran through the 2024 campaign. Republicans read the report as proof of a double standard against [[Donald Trump]], who had been indicted in the [[Mar-a-Lago Documents Case]]; the report itself distinguished the two cases, citing Trump's alleged refusal to return documents and obstruction of efforts to recover them. ## How it is cited It is the clearest example in the vault of an official report whose characterization outlived its conclusion: a declination memo remembered for an aside about the subject's age. ## See Also - [[Robert Hur]] · [[Joe Biden]] · [[Mar-a-Lago Documents Case]] · [[Jack Smith Report]] · [[Special Counsel]] · [[Reports Hub]]