More classified documents found at Joe Biden’s home, special counsel appointed

Robert Spur will examine why classified documents were found at Joe Biden’s home and office, intensifying scrutiny of his actions as he left the vice presidency.

Joe Biden returns to the White House from Walter Reed hospital: Picture: AFP

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday (Friday AEDT) named Robert Hur, a former US attorney during the Trump administration, as special counsel to examine why classified documents were found at President Biden’s home and office, intensifying scrutiny of Mr Biden’s actions after he left the vice presidency in 2017.

The appointment came after Mr Biden’s lawyer said aides found classified records, likely dating from Mr Biden’s time as vice president, at his Wilmington, Del., garage and at an office he used at a Washington-based think tank that bears his name. It heightens political pressure on the White House and sets up the unusual prospect of three concurrent Justice Department special counsels, two of whom are investigating the actions of the president or his chief rival for office. Politicians from both parties in Congress have also demanded details on the discovery of the documents.

“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,” Mr Garland said, adding that he would ensure Mr Hur got the resources he needed to conduct the probe.

Mr Hur is a longtime federal prosecutor who was the U.S. attorney in Maryland during the Trump administration and a senior aide to the deputy attorney general. He clerked for the late U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and prosecuted dozens of financial fraud, public corruption and other cases. He most recently was a defence lawyer in private practice.

In a brief order, Mr Garland said Mr Hur would examine the possible unauthorised removal and retention of classified documents found at Mr Biden’s home and the think tank. “The Special Counsel is authorised to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters,” the order said.

“I will conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial and dispassionate judgment,” Mr Hur said in a statement, adding that he intended to “follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly without fear or favour.”

Mr Hur’s work will be similar to that of another special counsel, Jack Smith, a longtime public-corruption and international prosecutor, who is running an investigation into former President Donald Trump’s potential mishandling of classified records and other matters.

Second tranche of documents found

President Biden’s aides found an additional small number of classified records after searching his residences in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Del., Richard Sauber, Mr Biden’s lawyer, said in a statement Thursday.

“All but one of these documents were found in storage space in the President’s Wilmington residence garage,” Mr Sauber said. “One document consisting of one page was discovered among stored materials in an adjacent room.” He added that no documents were found at Mr Biden’s residence in Rehoboth Beach.

The discovery of the additional documents, which The Wall Street Journal and others reported on Wednesday but hadn’t been confirmed by the White House, came after documents with classified markings were located at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, the president’s Washington-based think tank, on Nov. 2.

The search was done in co-ordination with the Justice Department and the lawyers completed the review Wednesday, Mr Sauber said.

Aides searched locations where Mr Biden’s documents from his tenure as vice president might have been shipped during the transition in 2017, Mr Sauber said, adding that the White House would continue to co-operate with the review under way by the Justice Department.

Asked about the discovery of the latest batch of documents on Thursday, Mr Biden said the documents had been in a locked garage with his Corvette sports car. “It’s not like they’re sitting out in the streets,” he said.

After reading language similar to his lawyer’s statement from the podium, the president said, “We’re going to see all this unfold,” adding, “I’m confident.”

Rep. Mike Turner (R., Ohio), the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, asked Attorney-General Merrick Garland and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to participate in a classified briefing on the matter.

“The presence of classified information at these separate locations could implicate President Joe Biden in the mishandling, potential misuse, and exposure of classified information,” Mr Turner said in a statement on Thursday. “It raises significant questions as to why then-Vice President Biden maintained custody of such highly classified documents, who had access to them, and for what purposes.”

The discovery of another set of classified documents is likely to intensify the political pressure on the president as the Justice Department determines how to handle the classified documents seized in August from the Mar-a-Lago residence of former President Donald Trump, who has joined fellow Republicans in accusing Mr Biden of hypocrisy on the issue.

“It would not be surprising to learn that every single vice president and president since Eisenhower has left the West Wing with classified documents and didn’t even know it,” said Jay Town, a former U.S. attorney in the Trump administration. “We just have to have an understanding as to whether it was intentional or not, but it’s clear that this just happens to our executives. That reality needs to be built into any charging decision.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that Mr Biden’s lawyers did “the right thing” by immediately turning over the documents found in November to the National Archives.

Mr Biden on Tuesday said during a press conference in Mexico he was briefed about the incident and was “surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office.” The president said he doesn’t know and hasn’t asked what the documents contain.

Pressure builds on Biden

News of the existence of the classified documents has fuelled Republican attacks and bipartisan calls for congressional scrutiny, but the White House has repeatedly declined to provide additional details about the matter.

During Wednesday’s White House press briefing, before news of the new set of documents broke, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre didn’t answer questions about when the president was first briefed on the discovery of the documents, why the public wasn’t informed earlier and whether other classified documents were improperly handled.

“I know you all are going to have a lot of questions. I get that and I understand that, but I’m not going to go beyond the process that’s currently happening” at the Justice Department, Ms Jean-Pierre said.

Attorney-General Merrick Garland has assigned the Trump-appointed US attorney in Chicago, John Lausch, with the job of reviewing what people familiar with the inquiry said were at least a dozen classified documents.

From there, Mr Garland could decide to appoint another special counsel like the one overseeing an investigation of classified documents found at former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, one of the people said.

Ms Jean-Pierre said Mr Biden’s lawyers did “the right thing” by turning over the documents to the National Archives after they were discovered in November at the Penn Biden Centre for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, the president’s Washington-based think tank. “When it is appropriate for us to say more, we will,” she added, following questions from reporters about whether the lack of information undercut Mr Biden’s pledge to be transparent with the public during his presidency.

Ms Jean-Pierre also declined to say whether Mr Biden used other offices in the period after he left the vice presidency.

Mr Biden on Tuesday said he was briefed about the incident and was “surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office”. The President said he doesn’t know and hasn’t asked what the documents contain. Ms Jean-Pierre pointed reporters to Mr Biden’s remarks.

Following a CBS News report, the White House on Monday confirmed that Mr Biden’s personal lawyers discovered classified materials at the centre more than two months earlier, on November 2, and turned them over to the National Archives the following day.

The White House earlier this week declined to explain why the administration didn’t disclose the discovery of the documents sooner. “This is an ongoing process under review by DOJ, so we are going to be limited in what we can say at this time,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said. “But we are committed to doing this the right way, and we will provide further details when and as appropriate.”

Legislators from both parties have called for a full accounting of how the classified documents ended up in Mr Biden’s think tank. Representative James Comer, the new Republican chairman of the house oversight committee, said the panel is opening an investigation into the matter. Democrat Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said Tuesday that he expected to be briefed on the issue.

The revelation comes amid a separate Justice Department investigation into Mr Trump’s handling of classified documents. Agents in August seized more than 11,000 documents in a search authorised by a federal magistrate in Florida, including roughly 100 marked as classified. The decision by the FBI to search Mr Trump’s home in August came after a monthslong effort to get the former president’s team to relinquish the documents through less invasive means.

The Wall Street Journal