As Attorney-General Merrick Garland named an independent prosecutor in the matter on Thursday, US President Joe Biden is expected to face an investigation into his handling of classified documents.
The decision was made after the discovery of a second batch of secret papers discovered at Biden’s former office sparked a public outcry.
According to Reuters, the new discovery, like the original from his time as vice president, was discovered in his garage in Wilmington, Delaware, where he frequently spends weekends.
According to the White House, Garland announced that Robert Hur, an appointee of Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, would be given authority to investigate whether the cache violated any laws.
“The extraordinary circumstances here necessitate the appointment of a special counsel,” Garland said.
The appointment came just hours after the White House acknowledged the second batch of papers but did not address their contents, escalating a scandal sparked by the discovery of the first set at a Washington think tank where Biden worked.
Republicans in Congress, who have accused the White House of covering up the affair, quickly announced their own investigation, which will be conducted independently of the criminal investigation.
The revelations have prompted comparisons to the special counsel investigation into Trump’s alleged hoarding of hundreds of classified materials at his Florida beachfront home and obstruction of government efforts to recover them.
“I take classified documents and material seriously. “We are fully (and) completely cooperating with the Justice Department’s review,” Biden told reporters.
“As part of that process, my lawyers reviewed other locations where documents from my time as vice president were stored, which they completed last night.”
Biden stated that a “small number” of documents with classified markings were discovered in storage areas and his library and that the Justice Department was immediately notified.
Biden refused to answer reporters’ yelled questions, but a White House lawyer later said the documents had been “inadvertently misplaced.”
Hur is a former assistant US attorney who served in the Justice Department from 2007 to 2014 before returning to public service as the principal associate deputy attorney general under Trump.
He promised a prompt investigation and stated his intention to be “fair, impartial, and dispassionate.”
