Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel Thursday to investigate whether President Joe Biden mishandled classified documents.
Garland announced Robert Hur, who was nominated by former President Trump as U.S. attorney, would be handling the investigation, after the White House said that a second tranche of documents were discovered in Biden’s garage. (RELATED: More Classified Documents Found In Biden’s Garage, Next To His Corvette)
Statement from White House Counsel’s Office on ongoing cooperation with the Archives and Department of Justice: pic.twitter.com/Dn3F8Oqggd
— Ian Sams (@IanSams46) January 12, 2023
The Department of Justice was informed of the initial classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center on Nov. 4, 2022, by Biden’s personal counsel, Garland said. The FBI began an investigation on Nov. 9, 2022 to see whether classified information had been mishandled, and on Nov. 14, Garland appointed U.S. attorney John Lausch to conduct an initial investigation to inform his decision on appointing a special counsel.
On Dec. 20, Biden’s personal counsel told the DOJ that additional documents were found in Biden’s garage. On Thursday, Biden’s special counsel told Lausch that an additional document was found at Biden’s personal residence, Garland added.
Lausch advised Garland to appoint a special counsel on Jan. 5 of 2023, the attorney general said.
Hur, who served as a U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, is authorized to “investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with this matter,” Garland continued.
“The special counsel will not be subjected to the day to day supervision of any official department, but he must comply with the regulations, procedures and policies,” he added.
Biden has said he was “surprised” to find out about the documents, and that he is cooperating with the DOJ. He has also said he doesn’t know what information the documents contain.
Statement from the White House on continued cooperation with the Justice Department and the Special Counsel: pic.twitter.com/pVS46b2KII
— Ian Sams (@IanSams46) January 12, 2023
His personal counsel called the misplaces classified materials a “mistake” and said that they are “confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced.”