As part of an announcement that went on this past Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland expressed that he has officially appointed a new special counsel to look into President Joe Biden in response to the recent discovery of a number of classified papers which were found inside both the garage at his private residence and inside of his private office at the Capitol.
Garland has chosen to call in former U.S. Attorney Robert Hur — who previously served throughout the Trump administration — to work as the special counsel for the investigation in the wake of U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch, who had previously been tasked with the primary review of the ordeal, pushed for Garland to call in a special counsel for the case.
“On January 5th, 2023, Mr. Lausch briefed me on the results of his initial investigation and advised me that further investigation by a special counsel was warranted. Based on Mr. Lausch’s initial investigation, I concluded that, under the special counsel regulations, it was in the public interest to appoint a special counsel,” stated Garland. “In the days since, while Mr. Lausch continued the investigation, the department identified Mr. Hur for appointment as special counsel.”
The new order, which was sent out by Garland, stated that Hur would look into “the possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records discovered.”
“The document authorizes him to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with this matter,” explained Garland during a press conference. “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.”
#BREAKING: Attorney General Merrick Garland has named Robert Hur as Special Counsel regarding the investigation of classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center and his Wilmington home. pic.twitter.com/ph0MAohEdk
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 12, 2023
The review kicked off just after Biden’s personal attorney found a stash of 10 classified documents hidden inside an envelope in the president’s personal office located at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington. The lawyer found the package back on the 2nd of November but the discovery did not go public until close to one week later. The cache of documents was quickly handed over to the National Archives for storage, explained the special counsel to the president, Richar Sauber, last Monday.
Sauber explained via a release that a full-scale review of all of Biden’s known offices, quarters, and other spaces turned up a second set of classified documents, which ended up being found within the private residence of the president located in Wilmington, Delaware.
