Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday he had appointed former Maryland US Attorney Robert Hur as a special counsel to investigate how classified documents ended up at an office President Biden used at his namesake think tank in Washington, DC, as well as at his home in Delaware.
Hur, a Trump appointee who left the Justice Department in early 2021 to enter private practice, will take over the investigation from Chicago federal prosecutor John Lausch, to whom Garland turned in November to review the materials — and who recommended to the AG last week that a special counsel be appointed
“Under the regulations, the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” Garland told reporters at the Justice Department. “This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters and to make decisions indisputably guided only by the facts, and the law.
“I am confident that Mr. Hur will carry out his responsibility in an even-handed and urgent manner and in accordance with the highest traditions of this department,” added the attorney general, who did not take questions.
A special counsel is an attorney appointed to investigate, and possibly prosecute, a case in which the Justice Department perceives itself as having a conflict or where it’s deemed to be in the public interest to have someone outside the government come in and take responsibility for a matter.
Though they’re not subject to the day-to-day supervision of the Justice Department, special counsels must still comply with department regulations, policies and procedures. They also technically report to the attorney general — the one government official who can fire them.
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Special counsels are provided with a budget and can request a staff of attorneys, both inside and outside the department, if they need extra help. The can bring indictments, as well as issue subpoenas and search warrants.
“The special counsel will not be subject to the day-to-day supervision of any official of the department, but he must comply with the regulations, procedures and policies of the department,” said Garland, who added that Hur is authorized to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in removing documents from the Obama White House in early 2017 and not turning them over to the National Archives.
“I will conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgment,” Hur said in a statement following his appointment. “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.”
Following the announcement, Biden attorney Richard Sauber said the White House would cooperate with Hur’s investigation and was “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.”
Garland said he selected Hur because Lausch informed him that he would soon be leaving the department for the private sector.
Many Republicans had called on Garland to name a special counsel to examine whether the Obama-era documents were mishandled by Biden following revelations this week that a box containing classified papers was discovered in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement on Nov. 2, just days before the midterm elections.
“I think if you believe a special counsel is necessary to assure the public about the handling of classified documents by Donald Trump, you should apply a special counsel to the mishandling of classified documents by President Biden when he was vice president,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Wednesday on Fox News.
Then on Thursday, Biden, 80, confirmed reports that more classified records were found in his Delaware garage, where he stores his prized Corvette.
“My lawyers reviewed other places where documents might — from my time as vice president — were stored and they finished the review last night. They discovered a small number of documents with classified markings in storage areas and file cabinets in my home and my personal library,” the president told reporters Thursday morning.
On Nov. 18, Garland named veteran prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel to determine whether former President Donald Trump should face charges after classified documents were recovered from the 45th president’s Florida resort in August.
On Thursday, before Garland’s announcement, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters, “I think Congress has to investigate this” and “We don’t think there needs to be a special prosecutor.”
“Here’s an individual that’s been in office for more than 40 years. Here’s an individual that sat on ‘60 Minutes’ and was so concerned about President Trump’s documents locked in behind, and now we find that this is a vice president keeping it for years out in the open in different locations,” McCarthy said.
The speaker was referencing a Sept. 18 interview with the CBS newsmagazine in which Biden described his predecessor as “irresponsible” for keeping sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Meanwhile, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee has requested that intelligence agencies conduct a “damage assessment” of the classified documents. Ohio Rep. Mike Turner on Thursday also requested briefings from Garland and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on their reviews by Jan. 26.
“The presence of classified information at these separate locations could implicate the President in the mishandling, potential misuse, and exposure of classified information,” Turner wrote.
— with Post wires
