Investigators interviewed numerous witnesses during the year-long investigation.
Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report to members of Congress summarizing a year-long investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents during his time in office.
This is one of the final steps before the report is published.
Earlier Thursday, the White House said it had reviewed a draft of the report and had no intention of censoring the information collected by Mr.
Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House Office of Counsel, said in a statement that the president's legal team has completed its review of the report and that “in accordance with our commitment to cooperation and transparency,” the president will not claim executive privilege. Ta. Any part of the report.
Attorney General Merrick Garland informed key lawmakers earlier this week that the Herr investigation into how about 20 classified documents ended up in Biden's private home and offices has concluded.
The records in question date back to when Biden was vice president, and at least some of them include the top-secret markings.
Garland brought Ha to special prosecution in January 2023 after a presidential aide discovered a bundle of 10 documents at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., where Biden had his office after becoming vice president. appointed as a government official.
Additional records were discovered a second time in the garage of Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, home, leading to Garland's decision to appoint Herr as special counsel, ABC News reported at the time.
Investigators interviewed 100 current and former officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former White House chief of staff Ron Klain and the president's son Hunter Biden. In October, Ho's team spent two days interviewing Biden himself.
ABC News previously reported that officials who were present at some of the interviews, including witnesses, said that while authorities had apparently uncovered instances of carelessness during Biden's time as vice president, based on statements made in the interviews, Biden's The report said that there was an unfair exclusion. The discovery of classified documents in Biden's office when he left the White House in 2017 seemed more likely to be a mistake than a criminal act.
The White House has emphasized from the beginning that it will cooperate with investigators. Biden himself has repeatedly denied any personal wrongdoing and said he was “surprised” to learn of the document's existence.
The Har investigation has been quietly progressing against the backdrop of Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into former President Donald Trump's handling of classified records, which led to 40 indictments last year and Trump's acquittal. ing.
President Trump has sought to link his situation to Biden's by equating Biden's actions and arguing that his prosecution was the result of a judicial system that unfairly targeted Republicans.
However, records subsequently released by the National Archives show that Mr. Biden's legal team cooperated with National Archives officials, but federal prosecutors said Mr. He accused the library, and later FBI agents, of intentionally concealing the information.
