President Joe Biden is reportedly on course to not be charged in the federal investigation into his retention of classified documents while out of office.
Special counsel Robert Hur is preparing a report that will criticize Biden and his aides for their handling of the records, but the president will likely not face a criminal case, sources familiar with the situation told The Wall Street Journal.
The report on Biden’s conduct is expected to be long and is anticipated to be released in the coming months, possibly before the end of the year. Investigators have interviewed roughly 100 people, including Biden himself last month.
Biden’s team said they found about 10 records marked classified while clearing out Biden’s office at a D.C. think tank in the days before the 2022 midterms, although that discovery was not made public until early this year, when CBS News broke the story of a Department of Justice (DOJ) inquiry.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Hur, who served as a U.S. attorney in Maryland during the Trump administration, would lead the probe as special counsel in January.
Further searches by Biden’s lawyers and the FBI also took place at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, which turned up more materials of interest to investigators.
Some of the documents found in locations linked to Biden date back not only to his time as vice president but also to his tenure as a U.S. senator. Biden’s representatives have said they have been cooperative with investigators and the president himself claimed there is “no there there.”
House Republicans have signaled that Biden’s handling of classified documents is related to their corruption-focused impeachment inquiry and recently subpoenaed former White House Counsel Dana Remus to appear for a deposition to discuss the materials.
“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,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said about the House GOP’s investigation.
Former President Donald Trump, who may face Biden in a 2020 rematch in the presidential election next year, is also the subject of a classified documents probe led by special counsel Jack Smith. Trump has pleaded not guilty in that criminal matter and in three other cases — all of which he has decried as politically motivated.
Yet another DOJ classified documents inquiry, this one focused on former Vice President Mike Pence, closed in June with no charges filed.
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