President Biden’s $8 million book deal was a likely motive behind his decision to take notebooks containing classified information when he left the White House in 2017, special counsel Robert K. Hur said.

Mr. Hur, testifying Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee about his probe into Mr. Biden’s possession of classified documents, acknowledged his report’s conclusion that Mr. Biden “had strong motivations to ignore proper procedures for safeguarding his classified notebooks.”

Mr. Biden left office in 2017 with plans to publish his second book, “Promise Me Dad.”

While still vice president, he met with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer who helped Mr. Biden author his first memoir in 2007, “Promises to Keep.”

The second book came with an $8 million book advance and Mr. Hur, in his report, surmised Mr. Biden needed his notebooks for the project, knew they contained classified information but took them out of the White House nonetheless.

“Joe Biden had eight million reasons to break the rules, took classified information and shared it with the guy who was writing the book,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, said. “That’s why he knew the rules but he broke them for an $8 million in a book advance.”

Mr. Hur said his investigators “did identify evidence” supporting their assessment of Mr. Biden’s motives, although he said he did not believe Mr. Biden committed a crime.

Mr. Biden, who was interviewed by Mr. Hur’s team over two days in October, told the investigators he did not recall why or if he took classified documents, but Mr. Hur described additional motives Mr. Biden had to take the material.

“He also likely viewed the notebooks, like the marked classified documents related to Afghanistan recovered from his garage, as an irreplaceable contemporaneous record of some of the most important moments of his vice presidency.” Mr. Hur wrote in his report. “This record was valuable to him for many reasons including to help defend his record and buttress his legacy as a world leader.”

Mr. Hur testified earlier Tuesday that Mr. Biden told Mr. Zwonitzer in February 2017 that he located classified documents in his home for use in the book. He also read classified material aloud to Mr. Zwonitzer, Mr. Hur said.

Mr. Biden said publicly that “I guarantee I did not” share classified information with Mr. Zwonitzer.

According to the transcript of Mr. Biden’s interview with Mr. Hur, which was reviewed by The Washington Times, he told investigators he did not recall telling Mr. Zwonitzer about finding the classified documents in his home.

“I don’t remember,” Mr. Biden said. “And I’m not supposed to speculate, right?”

Mr. Zwonitzer destroyed audio recordings of his discussions with Mr. Biden but was not charged by Mr. Hur, who explained to lawmakers that transcripts of the interviews were saved by the author.

• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.