[ad_1]
The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, has announced the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the retention of classified documents by Joe Biden.
Speaking in Washington DC in the immediate aftermath of reports that more classified documents had been found stored at Biden’s home in Delaware, Garland said: “Earlier today, I signed an order appointing Robert Hur a special counsel.
“… The document authorizes him to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with this matter. The special counsel will not be subjected to the day-to-day supervision of any official but he must comply with the regulations, procedures and policies of the [justice] department.”
Another special counsel, Jack Smith, is already investigating the retention of classified documents by Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor in the Oval Office.
In a statement on his Truth Social platform shortly before Garland spoke on Thursday, Trump said Garland should “immediately end special counsel investigation into anything related to me because I did everything right, and appoint a special counsel to investigate Joe Biden who hates Biden as much as Jack Smith hates me”.
The justice department is considering whether to bring charges against Trump over the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
There are significant differences between the Trump and Biden situations, including the gravity of an ongoing grand jury investigation into the Mar-a-Lago matter, and the fact that Trump fought hard to prevent the documents from being released.
Garland said Hur had had a “long and distinguished career as a prosecutor”, in the justice department criminal division from 2003 and as assistant US attorney for Maryland from 2007 to 2014. Hur returned to the department to be principal associate deputy attorney general in 2018 – when Trump was president – then was nominated and confirmed as a US attorney for the District of Maryland.
Garland said: “As US attorney, you supervise some of the department’s more important national security, public corruption and other high-profile matters. I will ensure that Mr Hur receives all the resources he needs to conduct his work.
“As I’ve said before, I strongly believe that the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity. Under the regulations, however, extraordinary circumstances require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter.”
Before Garland spoke, the White House announced that classified documents were found at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and the search of the president’s properties for secret materials from his time as vice-president under Barack Obama had concluded.
The revelation came days after an attorney for the president said Biden’s lawyers had discovered a “small number” of classified documents at his former office space in Washington.
In a statement on Thursday, the president’s special counsel, Richard Sauber, said: “Following the discovery of government documents at the Penn Biden Center in November 2022, and coordinating closely with the Department of Justice, the President’s lawyers have searched the President’s Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, residences – the other locations where files from his Vice-Presidential office might have been shipped in the course of the 2017 transition. The lawyers completed that review last night.
“During the review, the 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. One document consisting of one page was discovered among stored materials in an adjacent room. No documents were found in the Rehoboth Beach residence.”
Sauber said the documents were turned over to the justice department.
At his announcement, Garland detailed the various discoveries of classified material in Biden’s possession.
Earlier this week, the White House confirmed that the Department of Justice was reviewing “a small number of documents with classified markings” found at the offices of the Penn Biden Center.
The White House said the National Archives was immediately told about the discovery. Biden kept an office at the Penn Biden Center after he left the vice-presidency in 2017 until shortly before he launched his presidential campaign in 2019.
The revelation about the new documents came hours after the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said the White House was committed to handling the matter in the “right way”, pointing to Biden’s personal attorneys’ immediate notification of the National Archives.
“As my colleagues in the counsel have stated and said to all of you yesterday, this is an ongoing process under the review of the Department of Justice. So we are going to be limited on what we can say here,” Jean-Pierre said.
The White House and justice department declined to comment on Wednesday on reports of the second set of classified records.
John Lausch, the US attorney for the northern district of Illinois, was reviewing the discovered records. He is one of the few US attorneys to be held over from the Trump administration.
Biden has said he was “surprised to learn that there are any government records that were taken there to that office” but his lawyers “did what they should have done” when they immediately called the National Archives.
The top Republican on the House intelligence committee has requested that the US intelligence community conduct a “damage assessment” of potentially classified documents.
[ad_2]
Source link
