US President Joe Biden has lashed out about his memory retention after he was found to have "wilfully" retained classified information about the US's war in Afghanistan and other national security matters when he left the vice presidency in 2017, a newly released US special counsel report said.
Mr Biden will not face criminal charges.
The documents, released on Thursday (local time) included a handwritten memo to then-President Barack Obama in 2009 opposing a planned troop surge in Afghanistan and handwritten notes related to intelligence briefings and national security meetings, the report by Special Counsel Robert Hur found.
"Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden wilfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen," Mr Hur wrote.
The report also noted Mr Biden's problems with memory recollection, including that he could not remember the dates of his vice presidency under Barack Obama and the death of his son Beau to cancer in 2015.
"Given Mr Biden's limited precision and recall during his interviews with his ghostwriter and with our office, jurors may hesitate to place too much evidentiary weight on a single eight-word utterance to his ghostwriter about finding classified documents in Virginia, in the absence of other, more direct evidence," the report said.
"We have also considered that, at trial, Mr Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
Mr Biden snapped back in a press conference, particularly over the lines surrounding his son.
"How the hell dare he raise that. Frankly when I was asked the question I thought to myself, wasn't any of their damn business," Mr Biden said.
"I don't need anyone to remind me when he passed away."
He also refuted Mr Hur's characterisation of him as a "well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory".
"I am well-meaning, and I'm elderly and I know what the hell I'm doing," he said.
"I don't need his recommendation ... my memory is fine."
Mr Biden added he took responsibility but the classified documents were moved by his staff, saying he thought they were being moved to the archives.
Before finishing his speech, Mr Biden touched on the current situation in Gaza, where he misspoke and said Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was the president of Mexico not Egypt.
Mr Hur had identified in the report identified several reasons why he did not charge Mr Biden, including that the documents may have been taken to his home while he was vice-president, when he had the authority to keep such documents.
He said Mr Biden would not have faced charges even without a longstanding Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president.
"We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president," the report said.
Report ahead of Trump's case into mishandling classified documents
It came after a yearlong investigation into the improper retention of classified documents by Mr Biden, from his time as a senator and as vice president, were found at his Delaware home.
Classified documents were also found at a private office that he used in between his service in the Obama administration and becoming president.
The investigation into Mr Biden is separate from special counsel Jack Smith's inquiry into the handling of classified documents by Mr Trump after he left the White House.
Mr Smith's team has charged Mr Trump with illegally retaining top secret records at his Mar-a-Lago home and then obstructing government efforts to get them back.
Mr Trump has said he did nothing wrong.
After Mr Biden's lawyers uncovered classified documents at his former office, Mr Biden's representatives promptly contacted the National Archives to arrange their return to the government.
The National Archives notified the FBI which thoroughly conducted searches.
Documents on decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan
Part of the report centres on Mr Biden's handling of classified documents about Afghanistan — specifically, the Obama administration's decision to send additional troops there — which he kept after he left office as vice president in his Delaware home.
Mr Biden preserved materials documenting his opposition to the troop surge, including a 2009 classified handwritten memo to then-president Barack Obama.
"These materials were proof of the stand Mr Biden took in what he regarded as among the most important decisions of his vice presidency," the report said.
The documents have classification markings up to the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information Level and were found in a box "that contained other materials of great significance to him and that he appears to have personally used and accessed."
Photographs included in the report showed some of the classified Afghanistan documents stored with other household items in Mr Biden's garage, including a ladder and a wicker basket.
Classified documents from the Obama administration were also found in Mr Biden's basement den, according to the report.
Classified documents from his time in the Senate in the 1970s and 1980s were also found in his garage .
Biden had the authority to keep classified documents at his home
Despite signs that Mr Biden knowingly retained and disclosed classified materials, Mr Hur's report said criminal charges were not merited for multiple reasons.
Those include the fact that as vice president, and during his subsequent presidency when the Afghanistan records were found, "he had the authority to keep classified documents at his home."
Though the best case for charges could involve his possession of the Afghanistan documents as a private citizen, prosecutors said, it was possible Mr Biden could have found those records at his Virginia home in 2017 and then forgotten about them soon after.
"This could convince some reasonable jurors that he did not retain them wilfully," the report.
While the report removes legal jeopardy for the president, it is nonetheless an embarrassment for Mr Biden, who placed competency and experience at the core of his presidential campaign.
"Mr Biden was known to remove and keep classified material from his briefing books for future use, and his staff struggled — and sometimes failed — to retrieve those materials," the report states.
"And there was no procedure at all for tracking some of the classified material Mr Biden received outside of his briefing books."
White House lawyers and Mr Biden's personal attorney were given the opportunity to review and comment on the report.
Mr Biden chose not to assert executive privilege over any portion of the report, White House counsel's office spokesman Ian Sams said.
Reuters/AP/ABC