Classified files found in a locked garage at Biden home
JOE Biden will be investigated over whether he illegally kept classified documents, America’s top prosecutor said last night.
In an extraordinary press conference, Attorney General Merrick Garland revealed that he had asked top lawyer Robert Hur to probe the US President.
It came after a batch of classified documents were found in Mr Biden’s garage following the earlier discovery of ten others in an office. Speaking to reporters, Mr Biden struggled to explain why he would leave sensitive material ‘next to his Corvette’ – as one journalist put it.
He said: ‘My Corvette’s in a locked garage, OK? It’s not like it’s sitting out in the street.’
Mr Garland said the first set of ten documents – including some top secret files – were discovered on November 2 at the president’s Washington think-tank the Penn Biden Centre.
They dated from 2013 to 2016 when Mr Biden was Vice President and related to countries including the UK, Iran and Ukraine. Other documents were found in Mr Biden’s garage and home in Wilmington, Delaware, on December 20 as his lawyers searched for more material. Both discoveries only became public this week.
Mr Garland said it was ‘in the public interest to appoint a special counsel’ due to the ‘extraordinary circumstances’.
Mr Hur, a former senior Department of Justice prosecutor, previously investigated high-profile public corruption cases.
Mr Garland said he would look at whether ‘any person or entity violated the law in connection with this matter’.
He is set to operate independently from the Department of Justice to avoid any undue influence.
Special counsels are sometimes appointed to investigate politically sensitive cases and they carry out their responsibilities with a degree of independence from Department leadership, including Mr Garland, who was appointed by Mr Biden. They can pursue criminal charges – but not always.
The president’s own special counsel Richard Sauber said that after the first files were discovered, a review found ‘a small number of additional Obama-Biden administration records with classified markings’. He said: ‘All but one of
‘What were you thinking?’
these documents were found in storage space in the president’s Wilmington residence garage. One document consisting of one page was discovered among stored materials in an adjacent room.’
During his press conference, Mr Biden said that his lawyers found a ‘small number of documents with classified markings in storage areas and file cabinets in my home and my personal library’.
Fox News reporter Pete Doocy asked: ‘Classified materials next to your Corvette? What were you thinking?’ Mr Biden said: ‘My Corvette is in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street.’
Mr Doocy clarified: ‘So it was in a locked garage?’
Mr Biden responded: ‘Yes, as well as my Corvette.’
The investigation comes after former US president Donald Trump’s Florida estate was raided last August by FBI agents who recovered hundreds of classified documents. Another special counsel is now overseeing a probe into that scandal.