Jessica Roth: On ‘Willfulness’ There Wasn’t Sufficient Evidence that Biden Knew He Was Acting Contrary to Law

EXCERPT:

ROTH: "Well, if he can‘t prove the charges, then the charges aren‘t warranted. I mean, they‘re essentially one and the same. And there were a number of elements of the offense that he didn‘t have sufficient evidence for them. And today, anyone watching got a real lesson in criminal law, in one offense in particular, which is the willful retention of national defense information, which requires showing that a person possessed what counts as national defense information, and that they possessed it knowingly and they failed to return it, and that they did so willfully, which in this context means that they did so knowing they were doing it contrary to law. And with respect to each element, there were problems as to the different tranches of documents that Mr. Hur looked at, but particularly on the willfulness prong — and he kept coming back to this — he said there just wasn‘t sufficient evidence for to convict beyond a reasonable doubt, for a jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. — President Biden knew he was acting contrary to law. And there was lots of things in the report that supported that determination that there was insufficient evidence on the willfulness."