In a damaging report ahead of the November 5 polls, a special US counsel has said that President Joe Biden “willfully” mishandled classified documents as a private citizen but concluded that it would be difficult to convict him as he comes across as an “elderly man with a poor memory”.

The special counsel report said he had kept secret documents related to military and foreign policy in Afghanistan after serving as vice president until 2017.

The comment by Special Counsel Robert Hur in his 345-page report described Biden, 81, as “an elderly man with poor memory”, prompting a furious response from the president who held an impromptu press conference at the White House during which he asserted that his “memory is fine.”