On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress that the special counsel designated to investigate Joe Biden’s possession of classified documents has completed his investigation.
As the New York Post reports, Garland sent a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, in which he confirmed that former U.S. Attorney from Maryland Robert Hur had completed his probe after 13 months. Garland also said that Hur submitted his report Monday and the full report would be publicly released after a “privilege review” by the office of the White House counsel.
“I am committed to making as much of the Special Counsel’s report public as possible,” said Garland in his letter, “consistent with legal requirements and [Justice] Department policy.”
The investigation was launched after multiple classified documents were discovered at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, as well as his office at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), which houses the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. The documents were from the Obama Administration, where Biden was simply Vice President and thus did not have the security clearance to possess such documents, much less take them with him when he left office.
Hur was appointed by Garland on January 12th, 2023. Biden’s lawyers initially reported some classified documents at the UPenn office on November 2nd, 2022. But after additional documents were discovered in the garage of Biden’s personal residence on December 20th, the widespread backlash led to further discoveries of documents by FBI investigators, culminating in the appointment of the special counsel.
The scandal exposed a level of hypocrisy in Joe Biden’s rhetoric, as he frequently attacked former President Donald Trump as “irresponsible” over his alleged possession of classified documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. However, President Trump had the security clearance to possess and declassify any documents he wanted, as President of the United States. Biden never had such authority as Vice President.
Biden then tried to downplay his own scandal, dismissing the documents as “stray papers” that were “from 1974.” He also snapped at reporters when questioned about the documents being stored loosely in his garage, claiming that it was “a locked garage…so it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street.”
Although Hur is not expected to formally recommend charges against Biden himself or anyone else, the report could nevertheless prove to be a public embarrassment for Biden, raising further questions about his competence and ability to continue performing his duties as Commander-in-Chief ahead of his re-election bid in November.