With only a couple days into the new year, the spotlight has fallen on president Joe Biden, as several classified documents were found in his properties during the course of the past two months.
On January 12, Merrik Garland, United States Attorney General, addressed the issue of the classified documents and presented a timeline of the investigation. John Lausch, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, was initially appointed to handle the investigation.
The first document was found by Biden’s personal attorneys on November 2nd as they were clearing out his office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington where he used to operate during his vice presidency. The National Archives were shortly notified and the documents were retrieved the following day. This issue was then turned over to the Justice Department.
On December 20, the second batch of documents and official records were confiscated from Biden’s garage in Wilmington by the FBI. The most recent documents were found in Biden’s personal library at his home this past wednesday.
President Biden has addressed the issue and stated that his legal team is cooperating and working with the Justice Department on the investigation.
After these documents were found in three different locations, Garland was prompted to appoint Robert Hur to serve as a special counsel on the case.
“But under the regulations, the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” said Garland, “This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law.”
Hur previously worked under the Trump administration as the US attorney in Maryland until he resigned in 2021. Most recently he worked in a private law firm located in Washington DC as a litigation partner.
As the classified documents case came to light and Hur’s appointment was announced, he has made a statement regarding the matter.
“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,” said Hur.
The appointment marks a special case where both the current president, Biden, and the previous president of the United States, Trump, are being investigated by special counsels.
Hurr will continue the investigation on these classified documents and the nature of the documents themselves while looking into the purpose of the document’s presence.
