A Valley U.S. historian and former adviser to several federally elected officials told Northeast Valley News, “The U.S. is now politically polarized beyond any reason or fact—Party line is immovable, regardless of the cost.”
The former political historian and consultant is an Arizona resident and a professor.
On the condition of anonymity (due to a contract clause) with an out of state university where he teaches, told Northeast Valley News, “Even though party affiliation has always been divided—both Democrats and Republicans have traditionally reached compromise for the good of the country…unfortunately, our country is not witnessing this kind of leadership.”
“The truth is—truth no longer matters, only political maneuvering,”— according to the expert.
He explained in the recent report by special counsel Hur that it contained political “editorializing” of Biden’s memory and showcased offhanded remarks—which is completely inconsistent with long standing DOJ traditions.
Other legal experts have chimed in on Hur’s report in recent days.
“If this report had been subject to a normal DOJ review, these opinion based remarks would undoubtedly have been excised,” said former Attorney General Eric Holder.
Instead, Hur’s damaging portrayal of President Biden made the report inseparable from the political fray—unsurprisingly in the months prior to an election year as well as both Party’s defense of the ages of their respective candidates.
But Hur, according to experts went way beyond a report to identify and investigate any mishandling of or intentional hiding of classified documents.
“This was a brutal and manipulative narrative designed to characterize the President’s mental acuity in a negative light,” said Valley historian and former Republican.
Another legal expert, Neal Katyal, former acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama questioned Hur’s decision to include these “alleged” mental lapses during hours of interviews— allegations that included the president not remembering the year of the death of his son Beau—allegations that President Biden has vehemently denied.
Justice Department officials have said on the record that a “reliance on special counsels to handle such investigations has now upended the central principle of the agency: to avoid prejudicing the public against people who are not charged.”
“Perhaps there was some justification for special counsel Hur to comment on the President’s age and mental fitness, but I severely doubt it, and the report is not reassuring in this regard,” Katyal said in an email, “It seems gratuitous and wrong.”
Justice Department declination memos — which prosecutors write when they decide not to pursue charges, essentially ending an investigation — are virtually never made public.
Legal experts according to a Washington Post report said that what’s so striking about the Hur report.
“It would have been sufficient to say that we did not have sufficient evidence that he was acting willfully,” Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan Law School and former federal prosecutor, said at a public roundtable on Friday. “To instead besmirch his reputation struck me as going a bit above and beyond what you would from an ordinary prosecutor.”
“But the editorializing — the excessive, unnecessary commentary about an uncharged individual — does not reflect DOJ’s best traditions.”
