(NewsNation) — Special counsel Robert Hur defended his report on the federal investigation into President Joe Biden‘s handling of classified documents in front of members of the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday.

Hur, in his opening remarks, said he aimed to not “sanitize” nor “disparage” the president in justifying his decision not to recommend charges.

“The need to show my work was especially strong here. The Attorney General had appointed me to investigate the actions of the Attorney General’s boss, the sitting President of the United States. I knew that for my decision to be credible, I could not simply announce that I recommended no criminal charges and leave it at that. I needed to explain why,” he said.

In his own opening remarks, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, maintained that Biden “broke the law.”

“But because he’s a forgetful old man who would appear sympathetic to a jury Mr. Hur decided not to bring charges,” Jordan said.

Jordan, during the hearing, played footage from a press conference where Biden defended himself, insisting to reports that his “memory is fine” and that he’s the most qualified to be president. It also included a moment heavily criticized by conservatives, in which he accidentally called the Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah El-Sisi the “president of Mexico.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-New York, said Hur’s report represents a “complete and total” exoneration of Biden.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., later also said the “lengthy, expensive and independent investigation resulted in a complete exoneration” of Biden. 

Hur, though, noted that the word “exoneration” is not a word that appears in the part. 

Exonerating Biden “is not part of my task as a prosecutor,” Hur said.

Hur was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland as special counsel in January 2023 following the initial discovery of the classified records.

After a yearlong investigation, he chose not to recommend any criminal charges against the president. Hur said it would be difficult to convict Biden because the president would likely present himself to a jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Hur said he and his team conducted “a thorough, independent investigation” where they identified evidence that Biden “willfully retained classified materials” after the end of his vice presidency. However, they did not have enough evidence that rose to the level of “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“Because the evidence fell short of that standard, I declined to recommend criminal charges against Mr. Biden,” Hur said. 

Lawmakers have zeroed in on the description of Biden’s memory, with Republicans using it to make the case that Biden should not be reelected. Democrats have accused Hur of issuing an inappropriate report and commentary about Biden’s age.

On Tuesday, Hur explained his reasoning for including mentions of the president’s memory in the report, saying that he could not determine whether Biden “willfully” kept the documents without assessing his state of mind.

“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,” he said. “These are the types of issues prosecutors analyze 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.”

Certain evidence, and the president himself, Hur said, put his memory “squarely at issue.” Examples Hur pointed to included recorded conversations Biden had with a ghostwriter, in which he said he didn’t remember finding classified materials in his home.

However, transcripts from Biden’s interview with Hur that were released before the hearing show raised questions about how both portrayed the interaction.

For instance, Hur said Biden wasn’t able to remember when his adult son, Beau, died of cancer, leading Biden to angrily ask “How in the hell dare he raise that?” in the press conference after the report was released.

Transcripts show Hur didn’t ask the president about his son’s death; instead, Biden was the one to bring it up.

Biden was also able to recall the date when Beau died, though briefly wondered about the year.

“What month did Beau die?” Biden asked during the interview. “Oh, God, May 30th.”

A White House lawyer clarified it was in “2015.”

“Was it 2015 he had died?” Biden had asked, per the transcripts, adding “It was 2015″ when someone confirmed the year.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., pointed out that within the transcript itself, there were a few times where Hur actually praised Biden’s memory saying he had almost a memory that was in specific detail about how Congress does certain things, remembering back to his time.

Still, Hur stood by his report as he was grilled by lawmakers.

“My assessment in the report about the relevance of the President’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair,” Hur said.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California pressed Hur, saying that he couldn’t be “so naive” as to not realize the “political firestorm” his assertions on Biden’s memory would create.

“When you decided to include those words, when you decided to go beyond specific references to documents — you understood how they would be manipulated by by my colleagues here on the GOP side of the aisle and by President Trump?” Schiff said.

Schiff also asked whether Hur knew that the report would be made public.

“I understood from the Attorney General’s public comments that he would make as much of my report public as he could consistent with legal requirements and DOJ,” Hur said.

As Schiff continued pushing back on the report, Hur told him: “Congressman, what you are suggesting is that I shape, sanitize, omit portions of my reasoning and explanation to the Attorney General for political reasons,” Hur said. 

When Schiff insisted that Hur had done that, the special counsel said: “That didn’t happen.”

In his report, Hur described differences between former President Donald Trump and Biden’s classified documents cases. Trump, unlike Biden, faces allegations of obstructing justice and enlisting others to destroy evidence, something Judiciary Committee Democrats mentioned several times.

Nadler noted the differences between the two cases during the hearing, saying Trump was unable to take advantage of the “many, many chances” he was given to avoid the charges against him.

The Hill and The Associated Press contributed to this report.