New details of the Biden case
2023.01.12 14:33
New details of the Biden case
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – A special counsel has been appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday to determine whether President Joe Biden improperly handled sensitive government documents, establishing a parallel investigation to the ongoing investigation of former President Donald Trump.
The investigation, which will be led by Robert Hur, could have an impact on the Democratic president’s likely 2024 bid for reelection.
According to Garland, Hur, who was Trump’s top federal prosecutor in Maryland, would lead an investigation into whether classified records pertaining to Biden’s time as vice president had been improperly stored at his Delaware home and Washington think tank.
Special prosecutors, who are typically appointed to politically sensitive cases to ensure a degree of independence from Justice Department leadership, now face inquiries from the two likely rivals for the 2024 election.
One difference between the two cases is that Biden’s lawyers said they turned over the papers as soon as they found them, while Trump resisted until an FBI search in August, raising questions about whether he or his staff obstructed the investigation.
Following an initial investigation by John Lausch, the top federal prosecutor in the Chicago region who was appointed by Trump in 2017, Garland stated in an appearance at the Justice Department that he had come to the conclusion that a special counsel was required. “The extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel,” Garland claimed.
Garland, who did not answer any questions, added, “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.”
The new findings were criticized by Republicans in Congress as evidence of Biden’s hypocrisy.
“It is evident. “It’s on open display for everyone in the country to see,” said Republican U.S. Representative Mike Johnson. “Everyone can see it.” Why hasn’t the Department of Justice gone after the allegations against President Trump with the same fervor?
On Monday, the White House said that classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president were found in November at a Washington think tank. On Thursday, White House lawyers said that another set of classified documents from that time was found in a storage area at his Delaware home.
In November, Garland appointed Jack Smith as a special counsel to oversee investigations into Trump by the Justice Department. These investigations include the Republican former president’s handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. After announcing that he would run for president again after being defeated by Biden in 2020, Trump made the announcement.
In the coming weeks, 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.
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 Trump’s document case, FBI agents conducted a court-approved search of his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, in August. Among the thousands of records seized during the search, about 100 classified documents were found.
One difference between the two cases is that Biden’s lawyers said they turned over the papers as soon as they found them, while Trump resisted until the FBI searched the house, raising questions about whether he or his staff hampered the investigation.
In September, Biden criticized the way his predecessor handled classified documents as “totally irresponsible.”
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