Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday defended his office’s handling of special counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, calling the notion that he would withhold the document or edit it is “absurd.”

“When the president announced my nomination, he said to me directly and to the American public that he intended to restore the independence and the integrity of the Justice Department and that he wanted me to serve as the lawyer for the American people, not for the president. I sincerely believe that’s what he intended then, and I sincerely believe that’s what he intends now,” Garland said when asked about criticism from the White House that he should have acted to keep Hur from characterizing Biden’s memory as he did in the report.

Hur in his 345-page report questioned Biden’s age and mental competence but recommended no criminal charges for the 81-year-old president, finding insufficient evidence to make a case stand up in court.

Garland said the idea “that an attorney general would edit or redact or censor the special counsel’s explanation for why the special counsel reached the decision the special counsel did — that’s absurd.”

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