Biden was assigned a lawyer
2023.01.12 13:35
Biden was assigned a lawyer
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – The appointment of a special counsel to investigate President Joe Biden’s handling of sensitive government documents was made public on Thursday by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. This investigation could have an impact on the Democrat’s anticipated 2024 bid for reelection.
Hours earlier, a White House lawyer revealed that Biden’s legal team had discovered a second set of classified documents from his time as vice president in a storage space at his Delaware home. The announcement was made by the top U.S. law enforcement official. On Monday, the White House said that a think tank in Washington found classified documents from when he was vice president.
According to Garland, Robert Hur, a former Maryland U.S. attorney, would be the special counsel.
Special counsels, like Garland, who was appointed by Biden, carry out their duties with a degree of independence from the leadership of the Justice Department. They are sometimes appointed to investigate politically sensitive cases. Criminal charges may or may not be pursued by special counsels.
Jack Smith, a special counsel, was appointed by Garland in November to oversee Justice Department investigations into Donald Trump, including those into the Republican former president’s use of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump, who lost to Biden in 2020, announced in November that he would run for president in 2024.
During Trump’s presidency in 2019, a special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, documented contacts between the businessman-turned-politician’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. However, Mueller found insufficient evidence to bring a criminal conspiracy charge. While then-Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, later cleared Trump of obstruction of justice for his efforts to obstruct the Russia investigation, Mueller did not exonerate Trump of the charge.
During Bill Clinton’s presidency, an independent counsel (similar to a special counsel) investigated the Whitewater political scandal of the 1990s and the Democratic president’s sexual relationship with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. Despite being cleared by the Senate, that inquiry resulted in Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives.
In the coming months, Biden, 80, is expected to officially launch a campaign for reelection. He already has political concerns as a result of the documents’ disclosures.
Before reading from a prepared statement that echoed the information that the White House had released moments earlier, the president told reporters that he would have the opportunity to speak on “all of this soon.”
“As I stated earlier this week, people are aware that I take classified materials and documents very seriously. Additionally, I stated that we are fully and completely cooperating with the Justice Department’s review,” Biden stated.
According to Biden, his legal team discovered a small number of documents in his personal library’s file cabinets and storage areas with classified markings. Biden claimed that his garage, which is attached to the library, is locked.
According to a statement released on Monday by Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, personal attorneys for Biden discovered classified materials in a locked closet on Nov. 2 while packing files at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a University of Pennsylvania think tank.
Biden’s lawyers, according to officials, discovered fewer than a dozen classified documents inside the office, informed the U.S. National Archives, which is in charge of preserving government records, turned over the materials, and cooperated with the Justice Department and the Archives. Biden claimed that he was “surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office” and that he had no idea what the records contained.
In Trump’s case, FBI agents searched his Florida estate at Mar-a-Lago in August after receiving court approval. Among the thousands of records seized during the search, about 100 classified documents were found. In September, Biden criticized the way his predecessor handled classified documents as “totally irresponsible.”
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