JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a particular counsel to analyze President Biden’s dealing with of categorised paperwork. The paperwork are from the time that he was serving as vp. And a small variety of them had been just lately present in considered one of his workplaces and at his dwelling in Wilmington, Del.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MERRICK GARLAND: I strongly imagine that the traditional processes of this division can deal with all investigations with integrity. But beneath the rules, the extraordinary circumstances right here require the appointment of a particular counsel for this matter.

SUMMERS: This is the second particular counsel Garland has appointed to have a look at the dealing with of those sorts of paperwork. The first is investigating former President Donald Trump for his actions round January 6 and likewise as a result of lots of of categorised paperwork had been present in Trump’s dwelling in Florida. White House correspondent Tamara Keith joins me now. Tam, why did Merrick Garland say {that a} particular counsel was wanted right here?

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Some of the paperwork had been first found in early November, and by the center of that month, Garland had already requested a prosecutor to conduct an preliminary investigation. He stated as we speak that that prosecutor finally advised him that he thought a particular counsel was warranted. The particular counsel operates independently of day-to-day oversight from the Justice Department. And a part of the purpose with that particular counsel regulation is to keep away from even the looks of interference. And on condition that President Biden is the president and he is possible operating for reelection, that is precisely the type of case the particular counsel is designed for. The newly appointed particular counsel is known as Robert Hur, a profession prosecutor who was appointed to his two most up-to-date positions by former President Trump. And he stated he’ll examine pretty and shortly.

SUMMERS: Now, Attorney General Garland has laid out a really detailed timeline of how this complete investigation has unfolded so far. What did you be taught from that, and the way does it evaluate to what you have heard from the White House?

KEITH: I feel one of the simplest ways to explain the way in which the White House has been sharing details about this situation is incomplete. Biden on Tuesday talked about paperwork that had been present in an workplace maintained in Washington, D.C., after he was vp. But he did not say something about extra paperwork we discovered as we speak had been present in his dwelling in a storage in Wilmington, Del. Today Garland stated that the majority of these paperwork had been truly discovered on December 20. And one final one was turned over this morning. The White House has not defined why there was such a giant, large hole within the public disclosure of the state of affairs.

SUMMERS: And what concerning the president himself? What has he needed to say about this?

KEITH: Well, he spoke to reporters this morning earlier than Garland’s announcement, and he did reply a query concerning the extra paperwork that had been discovered. He stated he and his staff are totally cooperating, and he emphasised that as quickly because the paperwork had been discovered, they had been turned over to the National Archives and the Justice Department. And that’s in stark distinction to former President Trump, who refused to present again paperwork. He had his lawyer certify, falsely, that he did not have any extra, and in reality, he nonetheless had lots of of them, which was revealed by way of a search warrant. But Biden was additionally somewhat bit defensive concerning the suggestion that he was conserving categorised paperwork subsequent to his Corvette within the storage.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: My Corvette’s in a locked storage. OK? So it isn’t like they’re sitting out on the street.

KEITH: After Garland’s announcement, White House counsel Richard Sauber put out an announcement saying that they’re assured {that a} thorough evaluation will present that these paperwork had been inadvertently misplaced.

SUMMERS: OK, so what occurred right here sounds fairly completely different from former President Trump’s mishandling of categorised paperwork. But, Tam, like at all times, there’s a large political query right here.

KEITH: Oh, there may be. It simply creates quite a lot of room for questions. Congressional Republicans are making hay of this and saying that they are going to examine Biden’s mishandling of categorised paperwork. They will likely be asking who had entry to his storage and the opposite areas the place the paperwork had been saved and why this was stored from the general public till after the midterms. You know, they had been already planning to analyze President Biden. Now they have one other scandal that they’ll stoke.

SUMMERS: NPR’s Tamara Keith, thanks.

KEITH: You’re welcome.

Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our web site terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content will not be in its ultimate type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could differ. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.