AG Garland Names Special Counsel In Biden Classified Documents Matter: To look into the discovery of documents with classified markings at President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at a workplace in Washington, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel on Thursday.
The declaration came after Biden admitted on Thursday morning that a secret paper from his stint as vice president had been discovered in his library along with other documents discovered in his garage. Garland claimed that after FBI officials had previously removed other documents from the garage in December, Biden’s lawyers informed the Justice Department Thursday morning of finding a classified document at Biden’s residence. On Monday, it was revealed that secret papers had been discovered in his previous institute’s Washington office.
The investigation will be led by Robert Hur, a former U.S. attorney in Maryland appointed by President Trump. John Lausch, the top Justice Department prosecutor in Chicago, who had previously been assigned to look into the matter, will step down. Last week, Garland was advised to appoint a special counsel. Hur will shortly start working.
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“The extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” Garland said, adding that Hur is qualified to look into potential legal violations.
The nomination, according to Garland, “underscores for the public the department’s dedication to both independence and responsibility in susceptible areas, and to making decisions unequivocally informed solely by the facts and the law.”
At the White House, Biden assured reporters that he was “cooperating fully and completely” with a Justice Department inquiry into the storage of sensitive data and official documents. He did not specify when the most recent batch of documents was discovered, only that his attorneys had finished looking through possible storage facilities on Wednesday night.
Before the midterm elections on November 2, attorneys discovered the first set of records in a locked cupboard in the Biden Penn Center’s Washington headquarters. Still, they didn’t make that discovery public until Monday.
After Biden’s private attorneys discovered the initial records, according to Richard Sauber, a special counsel to the president, they looked into other sites where logs might have been transported after Biden departed the vice presidency in 2017.
One document was discovered in an adjacent room, according to Sauber, and a “limited number” with classified markings were found in a storage area in Biden’s garage in Wilmington. Later, Biden disclosed that the second site was his home library.
Garland claimed that on December 20, Biden’s lawyers discovered documents in the Wilmington garage and that soon after, investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation took hold of them. Only on Thursday was the latest information discovered by Biden’s attorneys shared with the Justice Department.
For a Justice Department that has spent months looking into Donald Trump’s retention of more than 300 documents with classification markings found at the former president’s Florida estate, the appointment of yet another special counsel to investigate the handling of classified documents is a remarkable turn of events, legally and politically.
Even though the situations are factually and legally distinct, any prosecution that the department might bring against Trump would almost certainly be complicated by the discovery of classified documents linked to Biden at two different locations and by the appointment of a new special counsel.
Hur was a personal friend and supporter of Rod Rosenstein. This former deputy attorney general played a significant role in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and interactions between Trump allies and Russian officials. In the Justice Department, he also served as Christopher Wray’s advisor.
Republican Kevin McCarthy, the incoming speaker of the House, said of the most recent information: “I think Congress ought to investigate this.”
“Here is a person who sat on ’60 Minutes’ and was so worried about President Trump’s paperwork locked in behind, and now we find out this is a vice president storing it for years out in the open in multiple locations,” the person said.
He stated, “We don’t think there has to be a special prosecutor,” going against the opinions of some Republican party members.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee’s Republican faction has asked the intelligence services to analyze the “damage” to any potentially sensitive papers. On Thursday, Ohio Representative Mike Turner also asked Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, to provide briefings on their reviews by January 26.
“The extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” AG Merrick Garland says.
“This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability.” https://t.co/sKlZCw09x4 pic.twitter.com/MmJOnQtVZr
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 12, 2023
According to Turner’s letter to the officials, “The existence of classified material at three distinct places could implicate the President in the misuse, possible misuse, and exposure of classified information.”
Hours after White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sidestepped queries regarding Biden’s handling of sensitive information and the West Wing’s management of the discovery, it was revealed that further classified Biden’s team had found documents.
She had stated on Wednesday that the White House was dedicated to resolving the situation in the “proper way,” citing the prompt notice of the National Archives by Biden’s attorneys.
She steadfastly declined to comment on the timing of Biden’s briefing, the possibility of finding other classified documents in unapproved locations, or why the White House took so long to announce the initial batch of documents’ discovery.
Although Biden said he was “surprised to find that any government materials were taken there to that location,” his attorneys “did what they should have done” when they quickly notified the National Archives, according to Biden. Keep following Newswatchlist.com for more updates about games. You can also share your views in the comment box, and don’t forget to bookmark our site.