(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday announced the appointment of Robert Hur to oversee a special-counsel investigation into President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified material from the Obama administration.
“As I have said before, I strongly believe that the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity,” Garland said in the midday announcement Thursday.
“But under the regulations, the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” he continued. “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.”
Garland said that the FBI conveniently waited until Nov. 9, a day after the midterm election, to begin an assessment of the materials, about which it had been notified on Nov. 4, “to understand whether classified information had been mishandled in violation of federal law.”
Garland said that he assigned John Lausch, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, to review the the matter and conduct an initial investigation on Nov. 14.
“I selected him to conduct the initial investigation because I was confident his experience would ensure that it will be done professionally and expeditiously,” Garland said of Lausch, one of the few U.S. Attorneys held over from the Trump administration.
Garland said that Lausch learned of the second batch of documents in Biden’s garage in Delaware on Dec. 20.
Biden’s lawyers also notified Lausch of an additional document in his personal library on Thursday morning.
On Jan. 5, Lausch advised Garland to appoint a special counsel.
“Based on Mr. Lausch’s initial investigation, I concluded that, under the special counsel regulations, it was in the public interest to appoint a special counsel,” Garland said.
Tur was identified by the DOJ after Lausch told Garland that he could not accept a longer-term assignment because of his planned departure for the private sector in early 2023.
The document appointing Hur as special counsel “authorizes him to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with this matter,” Garland said.
“… Mr. Hur has a long and distinguished career as a prosecutor,” he continued. “… As U.S. Attorney, he supervised some of the department’s more important national security, public corruption and other high-profile matters.”
Garland’s endorsement may not be a great assurance for critics who maintain he is a deeply corrupt and partisan stooge of the far-left administration.
His appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump on a similar charge of mishandling classified materials raised red flags due to Smith’s background for conducting past partisan operations during the Obama administration.
Prior to Thursday’s announcement, Trump took to Truth Social to demand a special counsel “who hates Biden as much as Jack Smith hates me.”
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.
