Brandon Drenon
Reporting from Washington DC

Arizona Republican Andy Biggs says President Biden "knew he had guilty knowledge" when interviewing with a ghostwriter who was writing his memoir.

Biggs read through transcripts from an audio recording where Biden told the ghostwriter to "be careful" as he looked over what Biden said "might be classified" information.

"That indicates he might know something more" than the general absent mindedness Hur sought to portray in his description of Biden and his handling of classified documents, he adds.

Image source, EPA

A seasoned prosecutor, Robert K Hur was appointed in 2017 by Donald Trump as the chief federal law enforcement officer in Maryland until 2021, when Trump also left office.

More recently, the former Harvard and Stanford Law School graduate has worked in private practice at Washington DC firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

He’s served as aides to people in high places - including the then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and Christopher Wray at the justice department, before Wray’s appointment to head the FBI.

He also clerked for former US Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Over more than a decade as a federal prosecutor, Hur worked on cases involving national security, public corruption and other issues.

Former colleague Thomas Dupree described him as "a very talented lawyer, a man of excellent judgment and a man of the highest integrity".

More here.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

Image source, House Committee on the Judiciary

Hur is starting to get some criticism from Democrats for including references to Biden's age and memory in the report. During another tense exchange, California Democrat Adam Schiff accuses Hur of knowingly moving to "ignite a political firestorm".

According to Schiff, Hur understood "how [those additions] would be manipulated" by Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers, claiming Hur included his "personal, prejudicial and subjective opinion of the president".

"You must have understood the impact of your words," Schiff adds. “You were not born yesterday, you understood exactly what you were doing."

Hur rejects that line of questioning, saying that politics - he's a registered Republican - "played no part whatsoever" in his report.

Matt Murphy
Reporting from the hearing

Image source, House Committee on the Judiciary

While some members of the judiciary committee have fiddled with phones and taken breaks from the chamber as Hur responds to questions, Chairman Jim Jordan has frequently been on his feet.

The Ohio Republican has been conferring with other Republican members of the committee and speaking to staffers throughout proceeding.

As Robert Hur clashed with Democrat Adam Schiff, Jordan was chatting to his colleague Kelly Armstrong, leaving his seat to squat beside the North Dakota congressman.

Hur says that some of the classified documents recovered from Biden dated back to his time as a senator.

Biden served in the US Senate from 1972 through to 2009.

Darrell Issa, a Republican rep in California asked Hur whether any of the documents dated as far back as Biden's time in the Senate, to which Hur replied there were some "marked classified documents" that were dated from that time.

Issa did not dwell on that, instead asking whether there were documents from Biden's time as vice-president, which we know there are, and then moves on.

Matt Murphy
Reporting from the hearing

Robert Hur displays a flash of anger, after Democrat Henry 'Hank' Johnson accuses him of using his report "to trash and smear President Biden".

The Georgia congressman accuses Hur of seeking to boost the Republican narrative that Biden is too old to serve a second term in the White House, fears polling shows some voters are concerned by.

"You knew that would play into the Republicans' narrative that the president is senile," Johnson says. "That is why they are having you here today."

"Partisan politics has no place whatsoever in my work," Hur shoots back.

But the special counsel admits to be a registered Republican, which elicits applause from one party member on the committee.

Brandon Drenon
Reporting from Washington DC

Over an hour into the congressional hearing, exchanges between the House representatives have become increasingly heated.

Florida Republican firebrand Matt Gaetz calls Hur's assessment of Biden's mental acuity a "senile co-operator theory" and says that Hur made his judgements about the president whose "elevator does not go to the top floor".

Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen hits back and points at Gaetz, saying: "That's disrespectful of senior people."

Cohen calls Gaetz comments "shameful".

Matt Murphy
Reporting from the hearing

Matt Gaetz, a hard-line conservative and ally of Donald Trump, is now questioning Hur. His intervention see's Hur's calm demeanour crack for the first time.

The Florida conservative fires a succession of rapid fire questions towards the special counsel, who seems uncomfortable for the first time since his testimony began.

Matt Murphy
Reporting from the hearing

Image source, House Committee on the Judiciary

President Joe Biden gave his first interview to Robert Hur on 7 October, the day Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel.

Since the report was published last month, Biden has emphasised that he was focused on responding to a potential international crisis at the time.

Rep Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat, repeats that claim in the chamber, saying Biden "had to be in and out to deal with an international crisis" during his interview.

But Hur pushes back, saying he "doesn't recall" the president leaving the room.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

During his questions, Kentucky Republican James Comer asks Hur whether the investigation had any information "of interest" on Biden's family - part of a wider, separate probe by the House Oversight Committee which Comer is involved with.

That months-long investigation - which has largely revolved around the president's son - has yet to uncover any concrete evidence of misconduct.

The inquiry has centred in part around Hunter Biden, who also faces federal tax and gun charges. He has pleaded not guilty. The impeachment probe has focused on his work for companies overseas, including in Ukraine and China.

House Republicans have also alleged that the US Justice Department "impeded, delayed, and obstructed" an ongoing multi-year criminal probe into the president's son.

Matt Murphy
Reporting from the hearing

Image source, House Committee on the Judiciary

Democrat Jamie Raskin is broadly ignoring Robert Hur, instead making a statement which repeats President Joe Biden's warning of the danger that democracy faces during his State of the Union address last week.

Raskin attacks Republican members, who he says "have completely lost their way" in their support of former President Donald Trump.

Raskin adds that the party's members have appointed themselves "amateur memory specialists," but are failing to remember the danger of totalitarianism.

He compares Trump to dictators around the world, and says there's a risk the US "sleepwalks" into a second Trump administration which would embrace "dictators" the world over.

Brandon Drenon
Reporting from Washington DC

Chairman Jim Jordan is now seeking to explicitly comment on Joe Biden's motives for keeping the classified documents.

Jordan points out that in the report, Hur said Biden would make $8m (£6.3m) for future sales of his memoir, the book he was said to be working on with a ghostwriter whom he told he had classified documents.

"Joe Biden had eight million reasons to break the rules," Jordan says.

"Pride and money is why he knowingly violated the rules. The oldest motives in the book, pride and money."

Jordan asks Hur if he agreed with his conclusions about Biden's motive, to which Hur responds, "we did identify evidence supporting those assessments".

Nomia Iqbal
Reporting from the hearing

This hearing is what we expected - Republicans and Democrats both angry at Hur.

Republicans for not charging Biden, and Democrats for making the president’s age a focus. Hur has stood firm and stoic in his answers but this is classic Washington political theatre.

Lawmakers on both sides don’t seem really interested in his answers.

All of their questions come across as rhetorical with lawmakers often cutting off the special prosecutor to give their own answers.

It feels like they’ve all made their minds up even though the hearing is set to last for a few more hours yet.

Brandon Drenon
Reporting from Washington DC

House committee chairman Jim Jordan sharply fires a question directly at Hur: "Why'd he do it? You know he knew the rules," referencing Biden keeping classified documents.

"Why'd he break them?"

Hur responds that "why" is not a question he directly addresses in the report.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

So far, we've seen two distinct lines of questioning emerge from the Democrats and Republicans on the committee.

On the Democratic side, lawmakers have been - aggressively at times - trying to make the case that Hur was not being easy on President Biden.

In the view of Democrats such as Jerry Nadler and Jamie Raskin, the key difference is one of intent and criminality. They are seeking to contrast Biden with Trump, who they believe knowingly broke the law and obstructed justice.

Republicans, on the other hand, have characterised Hur's report as allowing Biden to get away with committing a crime.

Clearly, the two sides plan to paint very different pictures of the report for the rest of the day.

Matt Murphy
Reporting from the hearing

Image source, House Committee on the Judiciary

Robert Hur has so far answered questions in a fairly calm manner, even while facing tough questions from ranking Democrat Jerry Nadler at times.

In response to a question about the legalities of retaining classified documents from Republican Tom McClintock, Hur jokes that he "wouldn't recommend" taking files home.

He adds that he is "not here to comment any further" on the reasoning behind his decision not to pursue charges, despite McClintock saying his "mind boggles" at the move.

Brandon Drenon
Reporting from Washington DC

Image source, House Committee on the Judiciary

Republican North Dakota House representative Kelly Armstrong starts the questioning to Hur by focusing on Biden keeping secret documents. He asks Hur to confirm several of the locations where classified documents were found in Biden's possession, including in the president's driveway, garage, den and his main office at home.

"How could that possibly happen? How could anyone be that irresponsible?" he says.

He also mentions an audio recording where Biden told a ghostwriter that he had classified information.

Armstrong says: "It appears from the report that he met every actual element of the crime."

Hur responds that "how the evidence lines up with the elements and what proof can be offered to a jury" determines if charges are brought or not... My ultimate judgement was that criminal charges were not warranted."

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

Hur quickly addresses the issue of Biden's memory during his opening remarks, as we noted earlier, when we first saw the text of his speech.

Hur says that he "could not make that determination" regarding whether Biden had "wilfully" retained or disclosed sensitive information without addressing Biden's state of mind".

"For that reason, I had to consider the president’s memory and overall mental state, and how a jury likely would perceive his memory and mental state in a criminal trial," he says. "These are the types of issues prosecutors analyse every day."

He says because these issues were important to his ultimate decision, he had to include a discussion of them in his report to the attorney general. "The evidence and the president himself put his memory squarely at issue."

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Joe Biden’s been on a good run.

On Thursday he delivered a State of the Union address that helped ease the mind of Democrats worried about whether he was up to taking on Donald Trump. The Republican response, delivered by Alabama Senator Katie Britt, was viewed by many as ineffective.

His campaign boasted that it had raised $10m in the 24 hours after the speech. He’s been on the campaign trail in the days since, attempting to build on this momentum.

Robert Hur’s testimony today could bring his hot streak to a screeching halt.

Although Hur declined to charge Biden with mishandling classified documents, the political damage from his report, and its characterisation of Biden’s diminished mental abilities, will be front and centre during this hearing, the purpose of which is provide a congressional review of the Hur’s findings.

Republicans will also be looking for any evidence that Hur was under political pressure not to bring charges from Biden administration officials.

This may just be a standalone hearing, but if House Republicans pick up the scent of scandal or misconduct, more inquires will surely follow.

Matt Murphy
Reporting from the hearing

Image source, House Committee on the Judiciary

Robert Hur - raising his right hand - has been sworn in by chairman Jim Jordan. The special council has now started delivering his testimony to the committee.

His opening remarks are focussing on his family background, recalling the trying upbringing of his parents. The two fled Korea during the country's brutal civil war.

"Their lives, and mine, would have been very different were it not for this country," he says.