The intrigue surrounding Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents grew rapidly through the morning on Thursday, leading to an announcement by Attorney General Merrick Garland that he is appointing a special counsel to investigate the matter.
Garland said he had named former U.S. Attorney Robert Hur to handle the independent investigation into the apparent mishandling of classified information dating back to Biden’s time as vice president in the Obama administration.
Garland’s Department of Justice (DOJ) began the day Thursday in a posture of conducting only a “review” of Biden’s storage of classified material at his Washington, D.C., office in the Penn Biden Center think tank. The process began to ramp up rapidly after it was revealed early in the day that a second batch of classified documents had been found inside the garage of Biden’s Delaware home.
The White House Counsel’s Office reported that it searched the two Delaware homes owned by Biden in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach after the Penn Biden Center documents were revealed.
Those lawyers said they contacted the DOJ when they found additional classified documents inside the garage at the Wilmington residence.
No reports have yet indicated the contents of the documents or who had access to them at any time since they left the White House years before Biden became president.
White House lawyers only described the cache as a “small number of additional Obama-Biden administration records with classified markings.” The statement indicated the classified material was being turned over to the DOJ.
Doocy: "Classified materials next to your corvette? What were you thinking?
Biden: "My corvette is in a locked garage."
He then struggles to read off a script pic.twitter.com/UYGiFGnJBP
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 12, 2023
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy questioned Biden about the second batch of documents on Thursday morning.
Doocy asked: “Classified documents next to your Corvette? What were you thinking?”
Biden responded, “I’m going to get the chance to speak on all of this, God willing it’ll be soon, but I said earlier this week — and by the way, my Corvette is in a locked garage. It’s not like it’s sitting out in the street.”
When Doocy asked the president to confirm that he had stored classified material in his “locked garage,” Biden said: “Yes, as well as my Corvette. But as I said earlier this week, people know I take classified documents and classified material seriously. I also said we’re cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department’s review.”
How many undercover agents had their cover blown and their lives jeopardized by Biden's serial recklessness with classified docs?
How many secret USG docs did China, Russia and Iran get? Do they contain nuclear secrets?
Did Hunter take some of these docs and sell them?
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 12, 2023
Political observers noted that Garland found himself in a position on Thursday where he had to name a special counsel to retain whatever credibility he had left. Otherwise, the indignant investigation of President Donald Trump and the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago would have become even more obviously partisan.
Special Counsel Hur had yet to make a public statement about his appointment as of early Thursday afternoon.
