President Joe Biden is not expected to face charges in his mishandling of classified documents case.
But special counsel Robert Hur’s report is expected to be sharply critical of how Biden and his longtime aides handled the material, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Hur interviewed about 100 people, including the president himself, Hunter Biden and the president’s aides colleagues.
The documents date from Biden’s time in the Senate and when he was Barack Obama’s vice president. They were found at the Penn Biden Center, a private think tank that Biden once led, and his home in Wilmington, Del., in the same garage where Biden keeps his Corvette.
President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden at church in South Carolina in August 2022
The discovery came after it was revealed that Donald Trump took classified documents with him when he left the White House and kept them at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home. Special counsels were appointed to investigate Trump and Biden.
Hur and his team interviewed President Biden for two days. They are also sTalk to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and top Biden aide Steve Ricchetti and Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain.
Hur was appointed special prosecutor on January 12, 2023. Jack Smith is the special counsel investigating the Trump case.
Biden has cooperated with the investigation from the beginning. The FBI investigated his think tank’s offices and Biden’s homes in Rehoboth Beach, Del., and Wilmington, Del.
On November 2, Biden’s personal lawyer discovered about a dozen documents with classified markings at the Penn Biden Center, Biden’s private think tank run by the University of Pennsylvania.
The material dates back to the Obama administration. The National Archives and the Ministry of Justice were informed of the discovery.
But the crisis only came to public attention in January after CBS News reported its existence, drawing criticism for the Biden administration, which has promised transparency.
Days later, more classified documents were discovered at Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware. Additional searches turned up more classified documents – about two dozen in total.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took a public beating for repeatedly saying the search for documents was over, but that additional searches that had found additional documents should be revealed.
The lack of disclosures, the misstatements and Biden’s own testimony when asked about the issue contributed to the impression that the White House had not been forthright about the issue.
President Joe Biden is not expected to be charged in a case involving classified documents
Special counsel Robert Hur is expected to write a report critical of Biden’s handling of documents
Administration officials countered that the archives and other federal agencies were immediately notified when documents were found.
The Biden administration has been at pains to point out the differences between the president’s handling of the documents and Trump’s.
The National Archives had repeatedly asked Trump to return official documents he took with him when he left the White House in January 2021, as required by the Presidential Records Act.
After months of obstruction, Trump finally handed over fifteen boxes to the National Archives and found classified material there. Suspecting that Trump had not turned over everything, the federal agency turned to the Justice Department, which ultimately obtained a federal warrant to search the property.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan were interviewed by the special counsel
Steve Ricchetti, adviser to the president (left) and former White House chief of staff Ron Klain (right) were interviewed by the special counsel
After that raid in August, it emerged that Trump had hundreds of classified documents in his possession.
Trump has since been accused of unlawfully withholding classified documents and obstructing justice by allegedly trying to have surveillance footage taken down that showed how some documents were handled.
The former president has pleaded not guilty.
Former Vice President Mike Pence also revealed last year that some classified documents had been found in his Indiana home. His lawyer immediately notified the federal government, and they were turned over to the FBI.