WASHINGTON, Feb 8, (AP): The Justice Department special counsel investigating US President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents has completed his inquiry and a report is expected to be released soon to Congress and the public, Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers in a letter Wednesday.
Garland did not detail the conclusions of the report from special counsel Robert Hur, but said he was committed to disclosing as much of the document as possible once the White House completes a review for potential executive privilege concerns. That process is expected to be completed by the end of the week, said Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel's office.
The yearlong investigation centered on the improper retention of classified documents by Biden from his time as a US senator and as vice president. Sensitive records were found at his Delaware home and at a private office that he used in between his service in the Obama administration and becoming president.
The resolution of the investigation arrives in a pivotal year for the president as he pursues reelection in a deeply polarized political climate. Though the probe's outcome is expected to lift a legal cloud over Biden, criticism of his handling of classified records could blunt his ability to attack Donald Trump - his presumptive opponent in November - over a pending indictment charging the former president with hoarding top-secret files at his Mar-a-Lago estate and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back.
Trump and other Republicans are likely to challenge the legitimacy of the investigation by noting that it was launched by the Biden Justice Department.
But Garland sought to insulate the department from claims of bias and conflicts of interest by last year appointing Hur, a former US attorney for Maryland during the Trump administration, to handle the Biden investigation and by naming a different special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee investigations into Trump.
While the Trump investigation resulted in dozens of felony charges against the ex-president last year, the outcome of the Biden probe is expected to be different. Justice Department policy prohibits the indictment of a sitting president and, unlike in the Trump investigation, no evidence has emerged to suggest that Biden engaged in comparable conduct or willfully held onto records he wasn’t supposed to have.