Ex-Trump White House lawyer: Special counsel Hur acted like 'prosecutor, judge and jury'

Department of Justice special counsel Robert Hur's report summarizing the classified documents investigation into President Joe Biden is getting intense scrutiny from both Democrats and Republicans.

Hur's report, which numbered nearly 400 pages, found Biden was not criminally culpable and didn't recommend the filing of any charges. However, the special counsel — who previously served as a US Attorney for the District of Maryland in former President Donald Trump's DOJ — still made sweeping statements about Biden's mental faculties that are currently being exploited by the president's Republican detractors.

USA TODAY recently interviewed several prominent legal experts on both sides of the political aisle. Mark Lytle, who worked as counsel in Donald Trump's White House and who describes himself as a Republican, blasted Hur's descriptions of Biden's memory as "outrageous," stating that DOJ prosecutors are instructed to either "speak through charges" or not at all.

"I’m no fan of President Biden, but he's not charged with a crime and now he's out there having to defend himself. And how can he defend himself when there’s no jury or judge to decide whether those allegations are true?" Lytle said. "Hur is acting like prosecutor, judge and jury. And the other side of that coin is it gives Trump and other opponents of Biden all this ammo to argue against him."

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Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who helmed then-President Barack Obama's DOJ, agreed with Lytle, stating that he would have made edits to the final report had Hur issued it under Holder's tenure.

"Special Counsel Hur's report on Biden classified documents issues contains way too many gratuitous remarks and is flatly inconsistent with long standing DOJ traditions," Holder tweeted. "Had this report beensubject to a normal DOJ review these remarks would undoubtedly have been excised."

Democrats close to Biden are reportedly saying the president is angry at both Hur and Attorney General Merrick Garland for their handling of the investigation. One Democratic donor told Politico that Garland was so tentative about appearing partisan that he over-corrected to the right in his selection of a Trump-appointed prosecutor to oversee the investigation into Biden.