Feb. 8 (UPI) — President Joe Biden Thursday declined to make executive-privilege claims in Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into classified documents found at the president’s home and office.
“We notified the Justice Department at approximately 9:00 this morning that our privilege review has concluded,” said White House Counsel’s Office spokesperson Ian Sams in a Thursday statement.
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday said no charges are likely in the Biden documents incident.
In a Thursday letter to congressional lawmakers, Garland said Hur’s report will be submitted to Congress.
Biden sat for voluntary interviews with Hur in October, and the White House said then that the president was cooperating with the investigation.
A few classified documents were discovered by his lawyers clearing a Biden private office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. The documents originated from Biden’s time as vice president during the Barack Obama administration.
A second batch of documents was found at Biden’s home.
Hur was appointed by Garland to investigate the same month the documents were found. Hur ended his investigation and submitted his report to the Department of Justice on Monday.
Biden voluntarily handed over the documents when they were discovered.
The case comes in the wake of former President Donald Trump being indicted on 40 counts of illegally possessing classified documents.
In the Trump documents case, the government attempted to retrieve a trove of classified documents that Trump refused to hand over after repeated requests, promoting an FBI search of Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home.
That resulted in criminal charges from a grand jury against the former president after Special Council Jack Smith investigated the case.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and accused Justice Department officials of unfairly targeting Republicans for legal prosecution.
