House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent a letter to AG Merrick Garland on Friday, expressing concerns over the appointment of Robert Hur as special counsel to investigate President Joe Biden's classified memo drama on January 12, 2023.
"The circumstances of this appointment raise fundamental oversight questions that the Committee routinely examines," the congressmen wrote to Garland. "Accordingly, please produce the following: All documents and communications referring or relating to the appointment of Robert K. Hur as Special Counsel, including but not limited to any memoranda regarding his appointment."
Former President Donald Trump appointed Hur in 2018 as the chief federal law enforcement officer in the state of Maryland. Prior to that, he worked as a clerk for former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Later, he assumed the position of an assistant US attorney for the District of Maryland. Hur is known for taking on corrupt Democratic politicians, including Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh.
However, US conservative observers have drawn attention to the fact that Hur used to closely work with former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and now-FBI Director Christopher Wray. While under the latter's watch, the bureau successfully suppressed the Hunter Biden "laptop from hell" story, Rosenstein is known as a staunch advocate of the DoJ/FBI investigation into the alleged collusion between then-President Donald Trump and the Kremlin. The Trump-Russia probe turned out as a complete fiasco with zero evidence being found to back the allegations. Hur was the Department of Justice's "point person" for overseeing the investigation, as per the US press.
Kash Patel, chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense under Trump, argued, in particular, that while serving a top aide to Rod Rosenstein, Hur vehemently opposed the release of US Representative Devin Nunes' memo on the FBI's alleged political bias and use of dodgy uncorroborated information to spy on the Trump campaign. According to Patel, Hur threw sand in the gears of Republican lawmakers at that time looking into the FBI's FISA violations and the origins of ex-MI6 Chris Steele's "dirty dossier" on Trump. "This guy is a swamp monster of the Tier One level," the former Trump official said in one of his interviews characterizing Hur.
US conservatives suspect Hur of being politically biased and fear that under his watch, the probe into Joe Biden's mishandling of sensitive classified documents would be watered down and yield zero results.
Questions Still Surrounding the Discovery of Docs
GOP Reps. Jordan and Johnson also wonder when and why Joe Biden's private attorneys started their search of classified materials in Biden's premises and other unsecured locations.
"It is unclear when the Department first came to learn about the existence of these documents, and whether it actively concealed this information from the public on the eve of the 2022 elections," their letter to AG Garland reads. "It is also unclear what interactions, if any, the Department had with President Biden or his representatives about his mishandling of classified material."
The lawmakers requested detailed information on the circumstance of how Biden’s personal attorneys came to discover classified documents and how and when the latter informed the Justice Department and the FBI about their findings. Meanwhile, some conservative observers have raised the question whether Biden's private lawyers had security clearance to look into the classified materials in the first place.
It also raises questions as to how exactly the sensitive government documents were stored by Biden and his entourage and who else could have had access to them. Some conservatives argue that the classified materials could easily fall into the hands of foreign spooks.
Garland's Double Standards
The GOP lawmakers also addressed the apparent double standard approach with regard to AG Garland's handling of the probe into Donald Trump's possession of classified materials and Joe Biden's latest case.
"The Department’s actions here appear to depart from how it acted in similar circumstances. In fact, on August 8, 2022, despite the publicly available evidence of President Trump’s voluntary cooperation, you personally approved the decision to seek a warrant for excessive and unprecedented access to his private residence," Reps. Jordan and Johnson highlighted.
On November 2, 2022, days before the midterm elections, President Biden’s personal lawyers reportedly discovered classified materials at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a Washington, DC think tank founded by Joe in February 2018.
The lawyers found several documents with classified markings (some of them labeled “sensitive compartmented information”) in an unsecure space. As per US press reports, the materials in question included "US intelligence memos and briefing materials that covered topics including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom." They were dated between 2013 and 2016 and originated from the time of Biden's vice presidency under the Obama administration. It appears that the documents had been stored at the unsecured location for years.
In addition to that, another batch of classified government documents was found in Joe Biden's garage at his Wilmington, Delaware residence. On Saturday, five additional documents were found in the room adjacent to the garage. According to the US mainstream media, the unfolding scandal could affect both Biden's approval and his re-election chances in 2024.
Meanwhile, GOP Reps. Jordan and Johnson instructed AG Garland to provide all necessary information pertaining to their investigation "as soon as possible, but no later than 5:00 pm (GMT -5) on January 27, 2023."