Trump appointee overseeing Biden classified documents probe unlikely to recommend criminal charges

While President Joe Biden's own classified documents probe may include criticism over how he handled classified records from his time as vice president between 2009 and 2017, his negligence is not likely to be seen as criminal.

According to the Wall Street Journal, special counsel Robert Hur — first appointed as US Attorney for the District of Maryland by former President Donald Trump in 2018 — is not expected to recommend criminal charges for the 46th president of the United States for his handling and storage of sensitive government information. Hur's probe is still ongoing, but the special counsel is expected to issue a final report by the end of 2023, and will likely testify before Congressional committees following the report's release to the public.

After his eight years in the White House serving under President Barack Obama, Biden was found to have stored classified documents at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC along with his private residences in Wilmington, Delaware and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Since January, Hur interviewed approximately 100 of Biden's closest associates and family members, including his son Hunter (also currently under investigation by special counsel David Weiss) and Biden himself. Some of the documents examined in the investigation also date back to Biden's time in the US Senate, where he served between 1973 and 2009.

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The Journal reports that the Biden investigation differentiates from special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents in several key ways. While Biden voluntarily informed the National Archives as soon as the documents were discovered and collaborated with the FBI in their recovery, Trump's team went back and forth with the National Archives for more than a year and insisted all documents had been returned.

In 2022, the FBI eventually raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and found dozens of boxes of undisclosed classified documents. Among the indictments in the Trump probe include obstruction of justice charges, alleging Trump deleted security camera footage showing how some of those documents were stored. Others indicted in the Trump probe include Walt Nauta — the personal valet of the 45th president of the United States — and former Mar-a-Lago employee Carlos de Oliveira.

Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky), who chairs the House Oversight Committee, has publicly expressed his disapproval with Hur's investigation. Comer previously questioned Hur over whether any of the documents recovered in the Biden probe pertained to his family's business dealings with foreign countries. White House spokesman Ian Sams dismissed Comer's accusations as partisan bluster.

"Instead of doing their jobs to fund the government and avoid yet another extreme and dangerous government shutdown of their own making, House Republicans are focused on a baseless fishing expedition just to try to smear the president for political purposes," Sams stated.

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Among the most senior government officials interviewed as part of Hur's investigation include Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.