Special counsel Robert Hur released a scathing report Thursday saying President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified military and national security documents but did not recommend criminal charges.

Mr. Hur also said Mr. Biden came across as an “elderly man with a poor memory” and would be a sympathetic figure to a jury.

Mr. Hur said the president had held onto records from his time as vice president in the Obama White House and the documents detailed U.S. foreign policy and military efforts in Afghanistan. Mr. Biden also held on to other records related to national security and foreign policy that the special counsel said implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”

Still, Mr. Hur said he could not charge Mr. Biden because his “memory was significantly limited” in the interviews conducted last year as well as interviews with the president’s ghostwriter.

As a result, Mr. Hur said, “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him … of a serious felony.” Mr. Hur also said the jury would have to recognize that the crime requires “a mental state of willfulness.”

“We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter,” the report said. “We would reach the same conclusion even if the Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.”

In a statement, Mr. Biden said he was pleased that the special counsel’s report did not recommend criminal charges.

He also defended the criticism of his memory, saying the special counsel interviews were five hours long over two days and occurred right after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

“I was so determined to give the special counsel what they needed that I went forward with five hours of in-person interviews over two days on October 8th and 9th of last year, even though Israel had just been attacked on October 7th and I was in the middle of handling an international crisis,” Mr. Biden said.

Mr. Biden also reiterated his claim that the Presidential Records Act shields him from prosecution.

Former President Donald Trump, the likely GOP nominee for president, ripped the Hur report as an example of a “two-tiered system of justice.” Mr. Trump is facing roughly 40 criminal charges for his handling of classified documents that were moved from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago residence during the final days of his presidency.

“The Biden Documents Case is 100 times different and more severe than mine. I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more. What Biden did is outrageously criminal — He had 50 years of documents, 50 times more than I had, and ‘WILLFULLY RETAINED’ them,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.

Mr. Hur‘s 345-page report details several instances where Mr. Biden stumbled to remember critical details during his interview with investigators.

According to the report, Mr. Biden asked investigators when he stopped being vice president or when his term began as vice president. He also couldn’t remember the year his son Beau died or when describing a key debate about the war in Afghanistan during his time in the Obama administration.

The report said Mr. Biden asked investigators, “When did I stop being vice president?” He later asked them if he was vice president in 2009, which would have been his first year in the position under President Obama.

Mr. Hur details one incident where Mr. Biden had a “hazy” memory about a debate over a military operation in Afghanistan during the Obama administration. He mistakenly told investigators that he “had a real difference” of opinion with a top U.S. general, when in fact, the general was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in a memo.

White House counsel Richard Sauber and Mr. Biden‘s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, criticized the comments about the president’s memory in statements. The two wrote a letter to Mr. Hur on Monday saying that detailing the president’s memory issues was “entirely superfluous.”

In a follow-up statement after the report was released Mr. Bauer accused the special counsel of “investigative excess” and using “prejudicial language” to describe Mr. Biden‘s lack of recall.

Meanwhile, Mr. Sauber said the comments about Mr. Biden‘s memory were “inaccurate and inappropriate.”

“Nonetheless, the most important decision the Special Counsel made — that no charges are warranted — is firmly based on the facts and evidence,” he said.

According to the report, Mr. Biden had classified materials in his garage, offices and basement den at his Wilmington, Delaware home. He also kept “classified notebooks in unsecured and unauthorized spaces at his Virginia and Delaware homes” after leaving the vice presidency.

The materials included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and notebooks containing Mr. Biden‘s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy.

Some of the classified documents were labeled “top secret/sensitive compartmented information,” a category reserved for particularly sensitive material. Among the materials was a 2009 memo he sent to Mr. Obama to persuade him not to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Other documents date back to Mr. Biden‘s time in the Senate, which began in 1973.

Damning photos were included in the report, including a photo showing three notebooks with classified materials stuffed inside cabinets below Mr. Biden‘s printer and a television.

Another set of photos showed Mr. Biden‘s garage where documents containing classified information related to Afghanistan policy were found among “a significant volume of boxes, storage and clutter.”

The special counsel team conducted 173 interviews with 147 witnesses, including Mr. Biden and collected millions of documents. Mr. Biden cooperated with investigators and consented to multiple searches of his property.

Mr. Hur characterizes Mr. Biden as hapless and forgetful while retaining classified information to help craft his 2017 memoir with a ghostwriter. The report said that the book ultimately did not contain classified information.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.