Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

We're now hearing from Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat and among the most vocal critics of Donald Trump on Capitol Hill.

As he speaks, there is a large placard with a quote from Hur's report, highlighting that Trump "obstructed justice" despite being given "multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution."

It's the second prop we've seen so far.

Earlier, the Democrats played a long video montage of Donald Trump making verbal errors during public events and claiming he does not recall details, including when the dates of his relationship with an ex-wife, Marla Maples.

Republican House representative James Comer says the goal of the House Judiciary Committee today is "transparency".

Comer said President Biden and the White House "have not been honest" about what he described as Biden's "willful retention" of classified documents.

Comer says he launched his own investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents before the special counsel did, and found evidence that the White House has failed to disclose.

Comer accused Biden of having a White House employee handle documents that he knew were classified and said Biden had blocked testimonies and subpoenas as part of Comer's own probe.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

Image source, House Committee on the Judiciary

Early on in the hearing, the Democrats are already seeking to contrast Biden's behaviour with that of former President Donald Trump.

In his opening remarks, New York Democrat Jerry Nadler - the ranking member of the judiciary committee - claims that the Hur report represents "complete and total exoneration" of Biden.

Trump, Nadler adds, "deliberately took classified information from the White House" which he stored in "crazy" places, including near to toilets at his estate in Mar-a-Lago.

The committee has also just played a video in which they showed various clips of Trump claiming he doesn't recall things or making mistakes in public events.

Matt Murphy
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Robert Hur - the lawyer who investigated Joe Biden's handling of classified files - is sitting quietly in the chamber as ranking Democrat Jerry Nadler plays out a video clip showing numerous verbal slips President Donald Trump has made in recent months.

The special counsel is perched on the edge of his seat, with his hands clasped firmly before him.

Matt Murphy
Reporting from the hearing

As we've just reported, Chairman Jordan is playing out video footage of President Biden's press conference in February, where he attacked allegations of his poor memory.

Rep Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the oversight committee, is enjoying the president's performance.

At one point, he laughed at one of Biden's rebuttal points to a journalist's question.

The committee chairman is now showing committee members a video of Joe Biden responding to the comments on his mental acuity mentioned in Hur's report. When the report was published, Biden held a press conference where he angrily responded to the claims.

Biden says he wants to give Hur a chance to respond to Biden's statements at the time.

In the video, Biden said: "I'm well meaning. I'm an elderly man, and I know what the hell I'm doing. My memory is fine."

You can watch that clip here:

Matt Murphy
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Image source, House Committee on the Judiciary

Judiciary committee chairman Jim Jordan opens proceedings here.

In his opening statement, the Ohio Republican attacks President Joe Biden's retention of classified documents, calling his attitude arrogant.

"Joe Biden thought he was entitled," Jordan says. "Joe Biden broke the law, but because he [Biden] is a forgetful old man, Mr Hur neglected to bring charges."

The hearing is beginning - and Robert Hur is now about to face questions from 44 House representatives about his politically explosive report.

You can watch live by pressing play at the top of this page.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Robert Hur’s report into Joe Biden’s handling of classified materials gave congressional Republicans a potent political weapon, even if it wasn’t the one they were expecting.

While the special counsel declined to pursue a criminal case against the president, his report’s characterisation of Biden as a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory”, as well as its cited instances of his inability to recall questioned events, exacerbated concerns by many Americans about his age and mental faculties.

In today’s Hur hearing, expect Republicans to hunt for more embarrassing and potentially damaging details. They’ve been seeking access to the transcripts and videos of Biden’s interview with investigators - but Hur’s first-hand accounts could be the next best thing.

Democrats may try to paint Hur – appointed as a US attorney by Donald Trump before being assigned to this investigation by Biden’s attorney general – as a partisan prosecutor with an axe to grind.

Citing Justice Department guidelines, they are likely to say that Hur should not have engaged in such sweeping conclusions about Biden’s mental state.

As is typical of these types of high-profile hearings, the two sides will talk past each other, playing largely for the cameras, each hoping to find a moment or exchange that sway public opinion.

Matt Murphy
Reporting from Capitol Hill

A handful of protesters have entered the chamber here demonstrating against the war in Gaza.

The six demonstrators entered the chamber just five minutes before proceedings here were due to begin, wearing pink T-shirts. Biden has faced protests over the US stance in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

So far, the lead demonstrator has been allowed to continue speaking, saying they will "not stand by while our government funds atrocities in Gaza".

Meanwhile, judiciary committee chairman Jim Jordan has arrived in the chamber. He looks disinterested in the demonstration.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

Image source, Getty Images

President Biden won't be at the hearing and has a busy day ahead of him. As the hearing kicks off at 10:00 EST (14:00 GMT), Biden is scheduled to receive his daily intelligence briefing behind closed doors.

Just over an hour later, he is scheduled to leave the White House and head to the headquarters of the Teamsters labour union in the city, where he will participate in a closed campaign meeting.

He will return to the White House in the early afternoon.

Later on, at 16:00, he will hold a bilateral meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Pool journalists will be around for all his public events, and Biden is sure to receive to questions about today's hearing. Whether he answers them remains to be seen.

Matt Murphy
Reporting from Capitol Hill

The committee chamber is slowly coming to life here, as staffers and reporters continue to file in.

Around the desk where Robert Hur will sit around a dozen photographers are fighting for position, with the special counsel expected to arrive in around 10 minutes.

Image source, Getty Images

One of the key criticisms of Hur from Democrats following his report was that he had gone beyond his remit by commenting on Biden's memory lapses.

Some former federal prosecutors and attorneys previously told the BBC that it was not typical for prosecutors to include highly personal details in these kinds of cases - but others said Hur was justified as the details were relevant to explain why he didn’t bring charges. Hur has defended his decision.

"It is very important for a special counsel to articulate the basis for any charging decision," said Steven Tyrell, a corporate attorney and former US justice department official.

Another, former White House counsel Ty Cobb, said: "Some of the examples were telling and justifiably included… but some of them gave me great pause”. More here

More now from the transcript of Joe Biden's October interview with investigator Robert Hur, which US media have seen. It gives us more details on how the president responded to questions about the classified documents that he kept.

Biden told Hur he was mostly uninvolved with handling the documents, a task left mostly to staff.

"My generic problem was there was a lot of stuff," the president said. "I didn't pay any attention to how they packed it up. I let them decide where things would go."

Classified documents were found in Biden's garage and home office in Wilmington, Delaware. Some were dropped in his driveway, the president said.

When asked whether boxes shown in a photo of his garage corresponded to the boxes left in the driveway, Biden said: "I have no goddamn idea."

Notebooks containing classified material had been kept disorderly in the president's Wilmington home. "I wish I could say I was more organised," Biden said.

Matt Murphy
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Outside the judiciary committee chamber, a handful of reporters are hanging out in hope of grabbing a passing word from a committee member.

But so far, things are quiet here except for a handful of congressional staffers getting set up ahead of their bosses' arrival

Today’s hearing will begin in little over half an hour, at 10:00 ET in Washington DC (14:00 GMT). You’ll be able to watch it by pressing play at the top of this page.

It’s the House Committee of the Judiciary which are doing the questioning - they have oversight of the US Justice Department, which asked Robert Hur to do his report. We’re not sure how long their hearing will last.

There are 44 members of the committee - 19 Democrats and 25 Republicans and it’s likely they’ll have lots of questions, both with different angles.

Nomia Iqbal
BBC News, Washington

Robert Hur will probably hope to dial down the temperature and say he was just doing his job - after all a special counsel’s purpose is to shield tricky cases from political interference.

But that one sentence in his 345 page report - “well meaning elderly man with a poor memory” sparked fury amongst Democrats. Hur was accused of carrying out a partisan hit job on the 81-year-old by focusing on his cognitive abilities.

Republicans were furious too: over the decision to not prosecute Mr Biden at all. However their silver lining is the age issue.

Age and cognitive health have become a crucial issue in the 2024 presidential race as polls suggest many voters are worried about Biden. The Republicans therefore sense an opportunity and want to keep the spotlight on it.

In the last week or so the president has done his best to quell concerns though - there was the fiery and punchy State of the Union address followed by a major ad blitz in multiple swing states where he addressed and joked about his age.

It’ll therefore be interesting to see how Democrats in particular handle today’s hearing. Will they resurrect their anger towards Hur again, or play it down to suggest they’re not too worried about their presidential nominee’s health?

Image source, Reuters

More now from Hur's opening statement - which he'll deliver to a House committee later - and which he addresses the attention given to what his report said about Biden's memory.

Hur defends including his comments on Biden's memory, saying: "The evidence and the president himself put his memory squarely at issue.

"We interviewed the president and asked him about his recorded statement, 'I just found all the classified stuff downstairs'. He told us that he didn’t remember saying that to his ghostwriter. He also said he didn’t remember finding any classified material in his home after his vice presidency. And he didn’t remember anything about how classified documents about Afghanistan made their way into his garage."

Hur adds: "My assessment in the report about the relevance of the president’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair.

Most importantly, what I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe. I did not sanitise my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly."

This morning, we've received a copy of what Robert Hur will say in his opening statement at the hearing later.

Specifically on his comments on Biden's memory - which have proved controversial, especially with Democrats - Hur said his job was to decide whether Biden retained or disclosed national defence information "willfully" and that he "could not make that determination without assessing the president’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," his statement said.

"These are the types of issues prosecutors analyse every day. And because these issues were important to my ultimate decision, I had to include a discussion of them in my report to the attorney general."

Image source, EPA

From when Hur’s report was published, the White House said the descriptions of the president's memory were not "accurate or appropriate" and that they had no place in a Department of Justice report.

"The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events,” wrote White House lawyer Richard Sauber.

Sauber urged Hur to revisit the descriptions of Biden’s memory and “revise them so that they are stated in a manner that is within the bounds of your expertise and remit".

Some Democrats have accused Hur - a Republican who was previously tapped by former president Donald Trump for the role of US attorney for the District of Maryland - of political bias. Vice-president Kamala Harris called it "clearly politically motivated".