Special counsel report on Biden's handling of classified documents released to Congress

Investigators interviewed numerous witnesses during the year-long investigation.

Special counsel Robert Hurr released his report to members of Congress summarizing his yearlong investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents while he was out of office.

This is one of the final steps before the report is made public.

Earlier on Thursday, the White House reviewed a draft of the report and said it did not intend to censor any information gathered by Hurr.

Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House Counsel's Office, said the president's legal team had completed its review of the report and “given his commitment to cooperation and transparency,” the president would not confirm executive authority. Any part of the report.

Attorney General Merrick Garland told key lawmakers earlier this week that Hurr had completed his investigation, which examined how roughly two dozen classified documents ended up in Biden's private home and office.

The records in question date back to Biden's time as vice president, and some include “top secret” identifications, the highest type of classification.

Garland appointed Harr as special counsel in January 2023 after presidential aides discovered a bundle of ten documents at the Ben-Biden Center in Washington, D.C.

A second discovery of additional records in Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, garage precipitated Garland's decision to appoint Har as special counsel, ABC News reported at the time.

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Investigators interviewed 100 current and former officials, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, former White House chief of staff Ron Klein and the president's son, Hunter Biden. In October, Harin's team spent two days interviewing Biden.

ABC News previously reported that some sources interviewed, including witnesses, said officials had uncovered inadvertent events from Biden's vice presidency, but that — based on what the interviews said — the improper removal of classified documents from Biden's office when he left the White House in 2017 was more a mistake than a crime. appeared.

The White House has insisted from the start that it is cooperating with investigators. Biden has repeatedly denied any personal wrongdoing and said he was “surprised” to learn of the documents' existence.

The Hur trial played out quietly against the backdrop of special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into former President Donald Trump's handling of classified records, which culminated in a 40-count indictment last year in which Trump pleaded not guilty.

Trump sought to connect his circumstances to Biden's by trying to draw a balance between their behavior and calling his prosecution the result of a justice system that improperly targeted Republicans.

But records released by the National Archives indicate that Biden's legal team cooperated with National Archives officials, while federal prosecutors have accused Trump of deliberately withholding classified records from investigators at the National Archives and later the FBI.

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