| Date | November 2022 – present |
|---|---|
| Location |
|
| Cause | Discovery of classified documents from the Senate tenure and vice presidency of Joe Biden in his possession |
| Outcome | No charges filed executive privilege invoked Merrick Garland found in Contempt of Congress |
| Inquiries |
|
On January 9, 2023, CBS News[1] reported that attorneys for U.S. President Joe Biden discovered classified government documents in his former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., and in his personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware, dating to his time in the United States Senate and his vice presidency in the Obama administration.[2][3][4] The number of documents was later revealed to be between 25 and 30. By June 2023, classified documents from Biden's Senate tenure were discovered in materials donated to the University of Delaware.[5][6]
On November 2, 2022, Biden's attorneys discovered the first set of classified documents in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center; they reported them that day to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which retrieved them the next day. The classified documents included intelligence material and briefing memos on Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom.[7] In coordination with the Justice Department (DOJ), Biden's attorneys discovered a second set of documents at Biden's home on December 20, followed by several more on January 9 and January 12, 2023. Biden's personal attorney said on January 21 that the Justice Department discovered six items containing classification markings during a consensual search of his home the previous day, some of which dated to his tenure in the Senate; investigators also seized some of Biden's handwritten notes from his vice presidency.[8] On November 14, 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch Jr. to conduct an initial investigation. On January 12, 2023, Garland appointed Robert K. Hur as special counsel to investigate "possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records". The next day, the House Judiciary Committee opened a separate investigation into the documents.
On February 8, 2024, the Justice Department released the report by special counsel Hur, which concluded that the "evidence does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt", so "no criminal charges are warranted in this matter".[9][10] For classified documents found in the Penn Biden Center and in the University of Delaware, Hur judged that they "could plausibly have been brought to these locations by mistake".[11] For Afghanistan-related classified documents found in the garage of Biden's Delaware home, Hur stated that his investigation could not determine "why, how, or by whom" that material was kept.[11] For Biden's handwritten notebooks found in Biden's Delaware home, which included classified content, Hur credited the possibility that Biden treated them as "personal property", given "historical practice" of the federal government allowing President Ronald Reagan to take home his diaries as "personal records" despite their classified content.[12][13][14] While Hur found that Biden read out classified information from his notebooks to his ghostwriter, Hur judged that it was not proven that Biden knew that the information was classified.[15] Hur also surmised that in a trial, "Biden would likely present himself to a jury ... as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" with "diminished faculties in advancing age".[16]
The report's comments on Biden's memory have sparked substantial political controversy, with The New York Times, The Washington Post, and New York magazine describing them as overshadowing the report's conclusion against charging Biden.[17][18][19] During a press conference later that day, Biden criticized Hur's report for negatively assessing his mental state, describing it as "extraneous commentary", and stated "my memory's fine.".[20] Biden also harshly criticized Hur for purportedly questioning him about the timing of his son Beau's death, suggesting it was unnecessary. However, the transcript of Biden's interview showed that it was Biden himself that brought up Beau Biden's death in his testimony.[21][22][23] The DOJ defended the report against criticism over inclusion of comments on Biden's memory, stating that the report and its public release fell well within DOJ guidelines.[24][25]
In May 2024, Biden would invoke executive privilege to keep a recording of the Hur interview classified.[26][27] On June 12, 2024, Garland, who enforced Biden's executive privilege decision to keep the audio of President Biden's interview with Hur classified and would not turn it over to Congress, would be found in Contempt of Congress;[28][29] despite the fact that the audio recording of the Hur interview was not turned over to Congress, the transcript of the Hur interview had already been turned over.[28]
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