Attorney General Merrick Garland informed congressional lawmakers that Special Counsel Robert Hur submitted his final report after months of investigation into President Biden’s alleged improper retention of classified materials.
Garland, in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ranking Member Jerry Nadler, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and Ranking Member Lindsey Graham, Garland said Hur had submitted the final report to the Ministry of Justice on Monday.
“Prior to submitting his report to me, Special Counsel Hur spoke with the Office of White House Counsel and the President’s personal attorney to authorize comments on the report,” Garland wrote. “This included a review by the White House Counsel’s Office to verify executive privileges, consistent with the President’s constitutional prerogatives.”
Garland, however, said the review of White House privileges “is not yet complete.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“As I have made clear with respect to each special advisor who has served since I took office, I am committed to making the special advisor’s report public as much as possible, consistent with legal requirements and departmental policy ” Garland wrote.
Garland pledged to “produce to Congress the report, its appendices, and the board’s letter following the completion of the review of White House privileges.”
White House spokesman Ian Sams told FOX that the White House anticipates the privileged review of Special Advisor Hur’s report will be completed by the end of the week.
Hur has been investigating Biden’s improper retention of classified documents since last year. Reports suggest no charges will be brought against the president.
Classified files were first discovered at the offices of the Penn Biden Center think tank in Washington, DC, on November 2, 2022, but were not disclosed to the public until early January 2023.
A second hiding place classified documents was also found in the garage of the president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, in December 2022, prompting Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint former U.S. Attorney Rob Hur as special counsel in January 2023.
President Biden speaks at the United Auto Workers union conference at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, DC on January 24. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Days later, more classified documents were discovered at the president’s home in Delaware. The FBI conducted a more than 12-hour search of Biden’s Delaware home, seizing additional classified documents.
Biden has defended the storage of classified documents in the past.
“By the way, my Corvette is in a locked garage, so it’s not like they’re sitting on the street,” he once said.
But Garland on November 18, 2022, appointed former DOJ official Jack Smith as special advisor to investigate whether Trump improperly kept classified files at Mar-a-Lago.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert Hur delivers remarks during Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s farewell ceremony at the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Main Building in Washington, DC, May 9, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
When Smith was appointed to investigate Trump, Garland and senior DOJ officials were simultaneously conducting an internal review of President Biden’s mishandling of classified records. That review, along with the discovery of classified documents in Biden’s office, was not disclosed to the public until January.
BIDEN INTERVIEWED BY SPECIAL COUNCIL ABOUT CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS
Republicans and allies of former President Trump were outraged, accusing the Justice Department of applying double standards.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the 37 criminal charges in Smith’s investigation. The charges include willful withholding of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, left, and Special Counsel Robert Hur. (Getty Images)
Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner, was later charged with three additional counts in an indictment superseding Smith’s investigation — an additional count of willfully withholding information about the national defense and two additional counts of obstruction. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
This trial is scheduled to begin on May 20.
Biden aides told Axios earlier this week that they are afraid of the elders That of President Trump The campaign could use the photos against the Democratic incumbent before their likely rematch in 2024.
COMER DEMANDS ANSWERS ON WHETHER BIDEN’S CLASSIFIED FILES MENTION COUNTRIES LINKED TO FAMILY AFFAIRS
Anthony Coley, a former senior adviser to Garland, accused the Biden team of slowly uncovering the president’s classified files affair, compared to its handling of the Trump investigation.
“In the context of former President Trump’s indictment for willful and deliberate withholding of classified documents, the Biden team’s drip-feed of information made the findings even worse,” he wrote in an opinion article.
Reports this week suggest the Biden campaign was concerned about potentially embarrassing photos included in Hur’s expected report.
The campaign was concerned that the footage showed how Biden stored classified documents. The classified documents date from Biden’s time as vice president to former President Obama.
Hur interviewed Biden at the White House – an interview that lasted two days. The White House said the president’s meeting with Hur was “voluntary.”
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Last year, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, who is co-leading the impeachment inquiry against President Biden, began investigating whether sensitive people, classified documents Biden singled out specific countries or individuals involved who had financial relationships with members of the Biden family or their related companies.
Comer questioned why Biden would have kept certain documents classified and asked Hur to provide his committee with a list of countries named in any documents bearing classification marks recovered from the Penn Biden Center, Biden’s residence, including the garage , in Wilmington, Delaware or elsewhere. ; and a list of all persons named in these documents with classification marks; and all documents found with classified marks.
It is unclear whether Hur cooperated with Comer’s request.
Fox News’ Patrick Ward contributed to this report.
