U.S. President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents erupted into a political crisis with potential legal repercussions on Thursday after the attorney general appointed a special counsel to investigate the incident.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland named former U.S. attorney for Maryland Robert Hur, an appointee of former U.S. President Donald Trump, to lead the inquiry after the White House confirmed that a second set of classified materials was uncovered inside a garage storage area at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home.
"This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law,” Garland said at a news conference.