However, over the years, commentators have decried the problem of “ overclassification.”īorn in New York in 1973, Hur is a Korean-American lawyer who served as U.S. More broadly, unauthorized removal and retention of classified material is illegal. Under the Presidential Records Act, official documents of the President and his staff-including the Vice President-must be turned over to the National Archives at the end of their term. “This appointment underscores for the public the Department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law.” Hur has been authorized “to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with this matter,” Garland said. 12, Garland said he appointed Hur as special counsel to investigate the handling of the documents, believing after a preliminary investigation that it was “in the public interest” to appoint a special counsel. The discovery of the initial set of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center was first reported by CBS News on Monday, while NBC News first reported on the discovery of additional classified materials in Delaware on Wednesday. “One document consisting of one page was discovered among stored materials in an adjacent room.” “All but one of these documents were found in storage space in the President’s Wilmington residence garage,” Sauber continued. 12, Sauber said Biden’s lawyers had “discovered among personal and political papers a small number of additional Obama-Biden Administration records with classified markings” in the Wilmington residence. Biden’s lawyer alerted the Justice Department to the existence of an additional document in Wilmington on Jan. Attorney John Lausch Jr., who was tasked with conducting the initial investigation into the matter, that additional documents with classification markings had been found in the garage of Biden’s personal residence in Wilmington. 20, according to Garland, Biden’s lawyer informed U.S. Garland said the National Archives contacted the Justice Department about the matter on Nov. Sauber added that the White House Counsel’s office immediately notified the National Archives of the discovery, and the agency took the documents under custody the next day.

midterms and just about two weeks before the Justice Department appointed a special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents. The discovery took place less than a week before Election Day for the U.S. Biden used the space “periodically” before his 2020 presidential campaign, according to Sauber’s statement. located about a mile from the White House. The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement is an independent research institution in Washington D.C.

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