White House finishes review of special counsel’s report on Biden classified docs probe, declines to assert privilege
Written by ABC AUDIO on February 8, 2024
(WASHINGTON) — The White House says it will not seek to censor any information gathered by special counsel Robert Hur in his report on his investigation into classified documents found at residences associated with President Joe Biden.
Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House counsel’s office, said in a statement on Thursday that the president’s legal team had completed a review of the report and that “in keeping with his commitment to cooperation and transparency,” the president would not assert executive privilege over any portion of the report.
The completion of the White House review paves the way for the Justice Department to release the report to Congress and the public in the coming days.
Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this week informed key lawmakers that Hur had concluded his investigation, which examined how approximately two dozen classified documents wound up at Biden’s personal home and office.
The records in question date back to Biden’s time as vice president, and at least some include “top secret” markings, the highest level of classification.
Garland appointed Hur as special counsel in January of 2023, after aides to the president discovered a batch of ten documents at the Penn-Biden Center in Washington, D.C., where Biden kept an office after his vice presidency.
Investigators spent more than a year interviewing as many as 100 witnesses, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Hunter Biden, the president’s son.
ABC News has previously reported that sources who were present for some of the interviews, including witnesses, said that authorities had apparently uncovered instances of carelessness from Biden’s vice presidency, but that — based on what was said in the interviews — the improper removal of classified documents from Biden’s office when he left the White House in 2017 seemed to be more likely a mistake than a criminal act.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
