How Jim Jordan connected the dots on Biden’s $8 million book deal

how jim jordan connected the dots on biden’s $8 million book deal

How Jim Jordan connected the dots on Biden’s $8 million book deal

“Biden not only kept information he was not supposed to keep but he shared it with people who were not allowed to see it. He shared that information with his ghostwriter. Special counsel Hur said President Biden had ‘strong motivations’ to do so and to ignore the rules of properly handling the classified information in his notebooks. In fact, he had 8 million reasons to ignore the rules. Joe Biden shared some of the classified materials he kept with his ghostwriter who was writing a book for which Joe Biden received an 8 million dollar advance. So we have motive, 8 million dollar motive, and we have the elements of a crime.”

— House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), opening statement at a hearing, May 16

At a hearing in which Republicans voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, Jordan asserted that the special counsel who investigated President Biden said he had a financial motive to improperly disclose classified information — a book deal with Flatiron Books in April 2017 that supposedly earned him $8 million. (That figure was an advance for three books, including one by Jill Biden.)

Robert K. Hur investigated Biden’s retention of classified documents when he was out of office, and issued a 388-page report on Feb. 8. The Justice Department released a transcript of Biden’s interview with Hur but has refused to provide the audio recording, which is the reason for the contempt vote.

Much of the report is devoted to examining whether prosecutors could make a case against the president that would result in a conviction. Despite the evidence gathered by prosecutors, the report repeatedly concludes that it would be tough to win a case — often because Biden had reasonable defenses, the facts were murky or Biden had cooperated fully with the investigation.

For the purpose of this fact check, we plan to examine what Hur says about Biden’s motivation for retaining private notebooks. Jordan — as well as other Republican lawmakers at the hearing — say that Biden was motivated by money. For instance, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) said “he knowingly took all this classified material out and then basically sold it to a ghostwriter to make 8 million bucks.”

The aim seems to be to suggest that Biden is motivated by greed. But despite the GOP claims, Hur’s report does not say the book advance was a factor in Biden’s retaining the documents.

The Facts

At issue are notebooks that Biden kept on key meetings when he was vice president. The report says “the evidence shows convincingly” that Biden knew the notebooks contained classified information.

But the report says that Biden could credibly claim he thought his notebooks were his personal property and that he was allowed to take them home after his vice presidency. For instance, the report notes the Justice Department took no action after it was discovered that former president Ronald Reagan had kept eight years’ worth of handwritten diaries that contained classified information. In his interview with Hur, Biden brought up the Reagan example.

While he was still vice president, Biden began to work with a ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, on a book, “Promise Me, Dad,” which covers a 14-month period of his vice presidency during which his older son, Beau, died. This was one of the books in the three-book deal with Flatiron. “From approximately April 2016 through February 2017, Mr. Biden worked with Zwonitzer to outline the book and draft a proposal to submit to publishers,” the report says.

Zwonitzer began interviewing Biden for the book in the spring of 2016 and then the manuscript was finalized in the summer of 2017, after Biden was no longer vice president.

The report says there is evidence that Biden, on three occasions, may have disclosed classified information to Zwonitzer, who did not have clearance. But, the report says, “we do not believe the evidence supports charges of willful disclosure beyond a reasonable doubt.” That’s because Biden, while speaking to Zwonitzer, indicated uncertainty about whether the passages in his notebook that he was reading were classified. As a result, “we conclude that the evidence does not establish that Mr. Biden willfully disclosed national defense information to Zwonitzer.”

Jordan quotes Hur as saying Biden had “strong motivations” to keep the notebooks — which Jordan says is the book advance. But here’s how Hur refers to the strong motivations.

“He had strong motivations to do so and to ignore the rules for properly handling the classified information in his notebooks. He consulted the notebooks liberally during hours of discussions with his ghostwriter and viewed them as highly private and valued possessions with which he was unwilling to part. We do not, however, believe this evidence would meet the government’s burden at trial — particularly the requirement to prove that Mr. Biden intended to do something the law forbids. Consistent with statements Mr. Biden made during our interview of him and arguments made by the White House Counsel and Mr. Biden’s personal counsel, we expect Mr. Biden defense at trial would be that he thought his notebooks were his personal property and he was allowed to take them home, even if they contained classified information.”

In another section referencing “strong motivations,” Hur mentions Biden wanting to write a book but makes no mention of the advance:

“Mr. Biden had strong motivations to ignore the proper procedures for safeguarding the classified information in his notebooks. He decided months before leaving office to write a book and began meeting with his ghostwriter while still vice president. After his vice presidency, the notebooks continued to be an invaluable resource that he consulted liberally. During hours of recorded interviews in which he read aloud from his notebooks in his private home, Mr. Biden provided raw material to his ghostwriter detailing meetings and events that would be of interest to prospective readers and buyers of his book. 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. This record was valuable to him for many reasons, including to help defend his record and buttress his legacy as a world leader.”

The book advance is only mentioned once in the report, in a different context, concerning documents found in Biden’s garage: “Inside the Mark Z folder was the final book proposal for ‘Promise Me, Dad.’ Mr. Biden used this proposal to shop his book to potential publishers, and this bidding process resulted in a book contract netting Mr. Biden an advance of $8 million.”

When Hur testified before the Judiciary Committee in March, Jordan tried to get him to agree that Biden had been motivated by “pride and money.” Hur did not answer “yes.” But it’s a matter of interpretation as to whether Hur deflected the question by simply confirming the language that Jordan quoted from the report, or that he agreed with Jordan.

  • Jordan: “$8 million. Joe Biden had 8 million reasons to break the rules. He took classified information and shared it with the guy who was writing the book. … He knew the rules but he broke them for $8 million in a book advance. But you know what? It wasn’t just the money. … This page 231, very next page … ‘Joe Biden viewed his notebooks as an irreplaceable contemporaneous record of the most important moments of his vice presidency.’ He had written this all down — for the book, for the $8 million. And the next thing you say in your report is ‘such a record would buttress his legacy as a world leader.’ You know what this is? It wasn’t just the money, it wasn’t just $8 million. It was also his ego. Pride and money is why he knowingly violated the rules. The oldest motives in the book, pride and money. You agree with that, Mr. Hur? You wrote it in your report.”
  • Hur: “That language, and it does appear in the report, and we did identify evidence supporting those assessments.”

Russell Dye, Jordan’s spokesman, appeared mystified by our query. “That is Mr. Jordan’s interpretation and the facts and common sense support it,” he said. “You don’t read classified materials to a ghostwriter unless it’s for a book. Joe Biden wrote the book for money. Joe Biden received $8,000,000 for the book. Mr. Jordan’s interpretation is completely reasonable.”

The Pinocchio Test

To some extent, this is a matter of opinion. But Jordan incorrectly suggests that the dots he has connected — Biden gave up classified information in exchange for a book advance — are in the report. There’s nothing to suggest that Biden received this money because the book contained information derived from his notebooks, or that Biden was motivated to share classified information to win a book deal. The report notes that Biden thought these materials were his own personal property that he was not required to leave with the National Archives — and that he was generally (though not always) careful when speaking to his ghostwriter about the material in his notebooks.

One also can presume any former vice president would get a sizable book advance. (Mike Pence received $1.4 million.) Moreover, it was a three-book deal, so it’s inaccurate to suggest all $8 million was for this particular book.

Yet, given this is opinion, we will leave this unrated and let readers come to their own conclusion.

(About our rating scale)

Send us facts to check by filling out this form

Sign up for The Fact Checker weekly newsletter

The Fact Checker is a verified signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network code of principles

OTHER NEWS

11 minutes ago

Comment: 'Having your rental deposit held hostage? It's time we fought back'

11 minutes ago

HMRC fines 95,000 people despite them not owing any tax

11 minutes ago

When Wrexham face Birmingham City after Ryan Reynolds forced into public Tom Brady dismissal

11 minutes ago

Martin Lewis says people can save on taxes using 'pension like a bank account'

11 minutes ago

Ex-Premier League star humiliated in transfer fiasco qualifies as PGA pro

11 minutes ago

Hackney family to pay £12,500 after building four rooms on top of home over 20 years ago

11 minutes ago

Albanese government ‘in deep strife’ as inflation rises

11 minutes ago

Woman Buys Cheapest House In Nice Neighborhood

11 minutes ago

New Jersey Devils Best Seventh-Round Draft Picks of All-Time

11 minutes ago

Almost 25% of Americans aged 65-plus are still working — here are the 3 states with the biggest increases in retirement-age workers

11 minutes ago

How Two Draft Night Trades In 2015 Impacted The Islanders Future

11 minutes ago

2024 NHL Draft Mailbag: Second-Day Steals, Jiricek’s Injury and Letourneau’s Upside

11 minutes ago

Seinfeld's Jason Alexander Says He's ‘So Smitten' Over Being a Grandfather

13 minutes ago

France bans extreme-right and radical Islamic groups ahead of polarizing elections

13 minutes ago

Beneath offshore wind turbines, researchers grow seafood and seaweed

13 minutes ago

Fourth of July: here is what that planned cookout will cost

13 minutes ago

NHL, Fanatics unveil on-ice player uniforms to be worn for 2024-25 season

18 minutes ago

MaXXXine review: Mia Goth stuns in this cocaine-fuelled Hollywood slasher

18 minutes ago

Cup noodles in Japan serve up notoriously poisonous pufferfish

18 minutes ago

Taraji P. Henson 'is working really hard' to transform her body

18 minutes ago

Huge Oregon Wildfire Sparks Mass Evacuations – Mapped

18 minutes ago

GNU: Threats, hate speech, anxiety reach boiling point on social media

18 minutes ago

UK weather: Met Office 10-day forecast warns of 'frequent rain' and thunder

18 minutes ago

ITV Good Morning Britain hit with hundreds of Ofcom complaints over Nigel Farage's appearance

18 minutes ago

County Durham factory turns to four-day week hailing benefits for staff and customers

18 minutes ago

What is the biggest strength for the Chargers heading into the 2024 season?

18 minutes ago

49ers News: Analyst explains why 49ers are among most overrated NFL teams

18 minutes ago

Judges block Biden plan wiping out student loans. Here's what to know.

18 minutes ago

Mekhi Becton seeks Eagles resurgence after shaky Jets chapter

18 minutes ago

Ford Recalling Over 500,000 F-150 Pickups Over Transmission Defect

18 minutes ago

Morgan Stanley wealth advisors are about to get an OpenAI-powered assistant to do their grunt work

18 minutes ago

Lauren Boebert Wins Colorado Primary After Jumping to New District

18 minutes ago

Karine Jean-Pierre warns: 'We had more rights growing up' than kids today

18 minutes ago

Bengals News (6/26): Gods and Kings

18 minutes ago

Princess Anne is 'recovering slowly' in hospital after a 'horse hit her on the head' and left her concussed, her husband Sir Tim Laurence reveals

18 minutes ago

High of 23 degrees forecast today though weather will become cooler, with rain at times later

18 minutes ago

Stephen King's Donald Trump Election Prediction Goes Viral

18 minutes ago

Video: Mother-of-three wakes up to find a stranger has pitched a tent with a family-sized strawberry gateaux inside at the front of her garden

18 minutes ago

Video: Forget the football, it's going to be a scorcher! Britain braces for hottest day of year as temperatures soar to 31C

18 minutes ago

Video: Julian Assange's wife Stella pleads for 'time and space for our family to be a family' as she breaks down in tears and confirms he will seek a pardon despite agreeing plea deal to secure his freedom after epic 14 year legal battle