Biden interviewed by special counsel over his handling of classified documents

President Joe Biden was interviewed on Sunday and Monday by Special Counsel Robert Hur as part of an investigation into his handling of classified documents. Hur was appointed to investigate how classified documents from Biden's time as vice president under Obama and from his decades in the Senate ended up in boxes stored in his garage next to his treasured Corvette. Documents were also found at his offices.

Hur spent two days interviewing Biden. White House Counsel’s Office spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement that "The voluntary interview was conducted at the White House over two days, Sunday and Monday, and concluded Monday." The interview had been scheduled several weeks ago, and Hur declined to comment on the proceedings, per The New York Times.

"As we have said from the beginning," Sams' statement continued, "the President and the White House are cooperating with this investigation, and as it has been appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly, being as transparent as we can consistent with protecting and preserving the integrity of the investigation." He referred further questions to the Justice Department. 

Hur was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the investigation into classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president that were discovered at the Penn Biden Center by the president's personal attorneys in Nov. 2022. The National Archives then took possession of the documents. Biden used the office from mid-2017 until he began campaigning for president.

Biden had no legal right to abscond with those documents. The offices of the Vice Presidency and the Senate do not have those kinds of privileges. In contrast, the office of the Presidency does. The Presidential Records Act gives presidents leaving office the ability, under law, to determine what, among their documents, constitutes personal possessions and what is designated for the National Archives.

Even so, when President Trump left office with documents in his possession, the Biden administration made such excessive demands to retrieve them that they issued subpoenas and went as far as to instruct the FBI to conduct a raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. Trump is now facing a federal case brought by Biden's DOJ over his handling of classified documents.

Neither Biden's home nor office was raided. Instead, he had a two-day interview with a special counsel appointed by his own attorney general.
 

The FBI seized 11 boxes of documents from Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, and then claimed that Trump was impeding their investigation. The DOJ did not permit Trump's attorney to be present during the search and seizure. 

Trump was arraigned on the 37 charges relating to the documents, which included 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of withholding a document or record, one count of corruptly concealing a document or record, one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation, one count of scheme to conceal, and one count of false statements and representations.

He responded on Truth Social to the Biden interview, saying "I see that Crooked Joe Biden is working on his documents situation. He moved documents, many classified, all over the place, for years, including to CHINATOWN. He even took documents as a Senator, an absolute no, no! I come under the Presidential Records Act, he doesn’t - A big difference!!! I did nothing wrong, he did, and so did many others."