Special counsel appointed to investigate Joe Biden’s classified documents as aides find two batches of files

US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday announced that he has appointed Robert Hur as a special counsel to investigate the materials found at US President Joe Biden’s Delaware residence and Washington office.

Earlier on Thursday, a second batch of classified documents was found at US President Joe Biden’s Delaware homes. Initial batch was found at his former think tank office in Washington last fall, according to media reports.

Search for more documents was carried out after Biden’s lawyers found the initial documents in early November 2022. Now, the entire matter is under US Justice Department’s review.


Two batches of classified documents were found at Biden’s office at the same time when former US President Donald Trump is facing criminal investigation for the alleged mishandling of separate classified files which were retrieved by the officials from his Florida resort.


The initial batch of at least 10 documents were found in November 2022 at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank near the White House. The incident did not come to light until this week.

Those files reportedly contained US intelligence memos along with some briefing materials that were related to Ukraine, Iran and the UK. Remarkably, the already-discovered documents relate to his time as US vice president under former US President Barack Obama. It is also unclear why the files were found in a private office which Biden reportedly started to use after his tenure as US VP ended.

Now, Robert Hur will review the entire matter of classified files being discovered with Biden. He is a lawyer at a Washington DC firm and was previously a US Attorney for Maryland during the Trump administration.

Why is it an issue?

For the unversed, the discovery of now two batches of classified documents at Biden’s private offices is a major issue as the access to such files is limited by US law only to the people with special authorisation. Moreover, there are specific sets of rules about how they are kept and sorted.

FAQs:

1. Why is Robert Hur appointed?
   US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday announced that he has appointed Robert Hur as a special counsel to investigate the materials found at US President Joe Biden’s Delaware residence and Washington office.
2. Who is Joe Biden?
   US President