AG Garland Appoints Special Counsel to Investigate Biden’s Alleged Mishandling of Classified Documents

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel on Thursday to investigate President Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.

“The extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” Garland said in announcing the appointment of Robert Hur, who he said is empowered to investigate any individual who may have broken the law.

The appointment of the special counsel was announced shortly after White House lawyers notified that an additional trove of classified documents was found in the garage of Biden’s Wilmington, Del. house.

Hur was appointed a federal attorney for the District of Maryland by former president Donald Trump in 2018 and left the post at the end of the administration’s term. During this time, Hur was involved in investigations into corporate fraud and counterterrorism. He is a Harvard alum, clerked with Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and also served as an aide to Christopher Wray, the current FBI director.

Hur will be empowered to investigate the “possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records discovered at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and the Wilmington, Delaware, private residence of President Joseph R. Biden Jr,” Garland added during his statements Thursday.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) used Thursday morning’s press briefing to criticize the Department of Justice’s handling of the issue.

“They knew this happened to President Biden before the election, but they kept it secret from the American public,” McCarthy told a scrum of reporters on Capitol Hill.

Garland appeared to address Republican concerns later on during the press briefing.

“I strongly believe that the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity…I strongly believe that the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity. But under the regulations, the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” Garland affirmed.

The White House Counsel’s office searched Biden’s Rehoboth Beach and Wilmington homes this week after finding Obama-era classified documents in Biden’s former office at the Penn Biden think tank in Washington, D.C.

“Lawyers discovered among personal and political papers a small number of additional Obama-Biden administration records with classified markings. All but one of these documents were found in storage space in the President’s Wilmington residence garage,” White House lawyers wrote in a statement released earlier Thursday. “One document consisting of one page was discovered among stored materials in an adjacent room.”

Speaking at the North American Leaders Summit in Mexico City Tuesday, Biden sought to address the controversy.

“Let me get rid of the easy one first,” Biden told reporters. “People know I take classified documents and classified information seriously.”

“[My lawyers] did what they should have done. They immediately called the archives…turned them over to the archives, and I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office,” Biden said in regard to documents recovered from his think tank office.

The Presidential Records Act stipulates that all presidential and vice-presidential records must be transferred to the National Archives at the end of an administration.

Asked about the discovery of documents in his garage on Thursday, Biden sought to downplay the development, stressing that the garage was locked.

“Classified material next to your corvette? What were you thinking?” Peter Doocy of Fox News asked Biden Thursday during a press briefing.

“By the way, my corvette’s in a locked garage,” Biden joked before adding, “People know that I take classified documents and classified material seriously. I also said we’re cooperating fully with the Justice Department’s review.”

Hur’s appointment comes against the backdrop of the ongoing special investigation into former president Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.

In November 2022, Garland appointed Jack Smith, a former Justice Department prosecutor, to investigate the matter and Trump’s potential unlawful interference with the transfer of power.

The White House will be holding a press briefing at 2:30 p.m. today to address the matter.