Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday he is appointing former U.S. Attorney Robert Hur to serve as special counsel to investigate President Joe Biden‘s mishandling of classified documents.
Hur will investigate the way classified documents were handled and if any criminal charges should be filed against Biden.
GOP SAYS GARLAND MUST APPOINT SPECIAL COUNSEL IN BIDEN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS SCANDAL
Previously, Hur served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the district of Maryland from 2007 to 2014. In 2018, Hur was appointed and confirmed by then-President Donald Trump to serve as the U.S. attorney for the district of Maryland, leaving that position in 2021. Hur has been practicing law privately since leaving his position as “chief federal law enforcement officer for the district of Maryland” in 2021.
Garland said that Hur would receive “all the resources” needed to investigate Biden. The attorney general also said the appointment was meant to continue “the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability to particularly sensitive matters.”
“I will conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgment. I intend to follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly, without fear or favor, and will honor the trust placed in me to perform this service,” Hur said in a statement following his appointment as special counsel.
Hur’s appointment comes after reports surfaced that classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C., and the president’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware, last year.
The documents were confirmed to have been found at the two locations by White House counsel Richard Sauber, who also said that Biden’s lawyers were cooperating with the Department of Justice and the National Archives and Records Administration. Biden himself said the documents at his Delaware residence were stored in a “locked garage” next to his Corvette. Garland confirmed the classified documents at the Biden residence were found on Dec. 20, 2022.
Garland had previously assigned U.S. Attorney John Lausch, a Trump appointee, to handle the Justice Department’s investigation into Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
The White House said in a statement that it is “confident” Hur’s investigation will show the documents were “inadvertently misplaced” and that it acted quickly once realizing the error.
“As the President said, he takes classified information and materials seriously, and as we have said, we have cooperated from the moment we informed the Archives that a small number of documents were found, and we will continue to cooperate,” Sauber said. “We have cooperated closely with the Justice Department throughout its review, and we will continue that cooperation with the Special Counsel. We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the President and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.”
Several GOP lawmakers were calling for Garland to appoint a special counsel to examine the possible mishandling of classified documents, as he did for the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents found at his residence at Mar-a-Lago.
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Special counsel Jack Smith is investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents, in addition to the former president’s role in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Garland cited Trump’s declaration of candidacy for the 2024 presidential election as a reason to isolate the investigation from the DOJ. Garland, who was nominated as attorney general by Biden, also stated the president’s intent to run for reelection in 2024 as a reason for the Trump special counsel.
