(HorizonPost.com) – Aides to President Biden are reportedly concerned that the final report from special counsel Robert Hur on the president’s handling of classified documents could pose problems for his reelection campaign, Axios reported.
Hur’s final report is expected to be released at any time in the next week or so. However, an exact release date has not been announced.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur special counsel in January 2023 to investigate the classified documents found in late 2022 in Biden’s former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC, and in his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
The president’s aides reportedly fear that Donald Trump may try to use Hur’s final report to “create equivalency” with the charges related to Trump’s mishandling of classified records, Axios reported.
Even if Robert Hur’s report does not include any criminal charges against President Biden, the president’s aides still believe that the details in the report could be politically damaging, especially in an election year.
Of primary concern is the possibility that the report could include photographs showing where the classified documents were stored, something Biden aides believe could cause a political firestorm much like the photos from special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment which showed stacks of boxes stored in various rooms in Mar-a-Lago, including a bathroom.
According to Axios, some close to the president have compared Attorney General Garland to former FBI Director James Comey whose investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails before the 2016 election was said to have helped tilt the race toward Donald Trump.
In an interview with “60 Minutes” last fall when Attorney General Garland said he would publicly release the final special counsel report on the probe into Hunter Biden, he told anchor Scott Pelley that typically, after a final report is released, the special counsel testifies before Congress on the details in the report. Garland said he expected the same in the current special counsel investigations.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department confirmed to Axios that the attorney general remained committed to publicly releasing as much as possible from all of the special counsel reports.
Copyright 2024, HorizonPost.com
