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Attorney General Merrick Garland appoints special counsel to investigate Biden's classified documents

The announcement came hours after the White House revealed a second set of classified documents was found at Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware.

Kevin Johnson ,  Bart Jansen   | Paste BN

WASHINGTON – Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel, Robert Hur, on Thursday to further review the handling of classified documents found at a former office space used by President Joe Biden and at his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

  • Who is Hur? Hur is a former U.S. attorney in Maryland who will return to the government from private practice in Washington. Hur, who also was a principal associate deputy attorney general in the Trump administration, was expected to begin work in the coming days.
  • Why Garland said he's appointing special counsel: “The very extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel,” Garland said. "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."

Who is Robert Hur? Robert Hur tapped by Merrick Garland to lead Biden documents probe. Who is he?

Questions about Biden documents remain unanswered: Questions about Joe Biden documents escalate as second batch of records is found

2 batches of Biden documents found at his former DC office, Delaware home

Another special counsel is investigating Trump documents

Garland's action also followed his appointment of a separate special counsel, Jack Smith, in November to oversee pending criminal investigations related to Donald Trump, including the former president's retention of hundreds of classified documents at his Florida estate after leaving the White House in 2021.

Biden's lawyer pledges to cooperate

Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, pledged in a statement Thursday to continue cooperating with the investigation.

“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,” Sauber said.

White House: Search for more classified documents is done

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters Thursday that Biden aides had searched all the places that classified documents could have been stored.

"You should assume that it's been completed," she said.

Timeline of Biden documents: Merrick Garland describes details of discoveries, investigation

Garland, who didn't respond to questions at his announcement, set out a timeline for when documents were found and when investigations began:

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy calls for congressional investigation

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Thursday that lawmakers would investigate the Justice Department over the document revelations. He contrasted the FBI search last year of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate for records including classified documents with Biden's revelations about two sets of classified documents. 

"I think Congress has to investigate this," McCarthy said.

McCarthy suggested that because Biden's personal lawyers made the discovery, he must have known classified documents were there.

The first batch: DOJ reviewing classified documents found at Biden facility from time as VP

The second batch: Second set of classified documents found in Biden's garage after search of 2 residences

Biden 'surprised' by initial document discovery

Earlier this week, Biden said he was "surprised" to learn that the records had been found in the private office he used before his presidential campaign and maintained that he was unaware of their contents. 

"People know I take classified documents, classified information, seriously," Biden said in Mexico City at a summit with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.

Biden said he was briefed about the documents as soon as they were discovered in a box last fall by his lawyers, who were cleaning out the office. When they realized there were several classified documents in the box, "they did what they should have done," Biden said. "They immediately called the (National) Archives and turned them over to the archives."

More: President Joe Biden classified documents: What we know and how discovery compares to Trump

DOJ initial review of document discovery by Chicago US attorney

The White House confirmed earlier this week that the Justice Department had been reviewing the matter after a preliminary inquiry led by Chicago U.S. Attorney John Lausch Jr., a holdover from the Trump administration.

Garland's decision was based on Lausch's preliminary inquiry, and the senior department official called the matter a "textbook case of what is required" for the appointment of a special counsel.

Richard Sauber, a counsel to the president, has said Biden's personal attorneys have been cooperating with the National Archives and the Justice Department review.

The differences between the Trump and Biden documents

The discovery of the documents prompted immediate comparisons to the Trump case, though the episodes are marked by key differences.

Trump had repeatedly resisted efforts by the National Archives to recover the material, including failing to fully respond to a subpoena issued for the records by federal law enforcement authorities. That prompted the FBI to lead an unprecedented search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, resulting in the seizure of the classified documents and thousands of other government records.

In the Biden case, the White House has maintained that the documents, numbering about 10, were returned to the archives the day after they were discovered by the president's lawyers. “The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the archives,” Sauber said in an earlier statement.

More: Department of Justice special counsel issues subpoenas in Trump probes

Key House Republicans ask for a closer look at Biden documents

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, sent a letter Tuesday to Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, asking for an immediate review and damage assessment of the documents stored at a nongovernmental office for at least six years.

"This discovery of classified information would put President Biden in potential violation of laws protecting national security, including the Espionage Act and Presidential Records Act," Turner said.

The head of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said he would investigate what he called a "two-tier justice system." He asked the National Archives for information about the Biden documents and was referred to the Justice Department.

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