“Even if there are no criminal charges, Biden aides expect the report’s details to be politically damaging,” Axios reports.
Joe Biden’s team is reportedly worried about Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents revealing “embarrassing details” that could hurt his reelection bid.
Though Biden’s aides don’t expect criminal charges from the Special Counsel report, they believe the final findings that could be released this week will still be “politically damaging”, possibly including photos.
From Axios:
Biden aides don’t expect criminal charges in the case, but they believe Hur’s report will include embarrassing details — possibly with photos — on how Biden stored documents.
In late 2022, Obama-era classified documents were discovered in Biden’s garage at his home in Delaware and in a private office he used.
Biden aides believe that Donald Trump, Biden’s likely foe in November, will try to use Hur’s report to create equivalency with the felony charges Trump faces related to his keeping classified documents after his presidency.
Biden aides believe Hur’s probe is done and that his final report could come any time — even as soon as this week — but the final timing is unclear.
Additionally, Biden aides are concerned Hur’s report could spark a “political storm” similar to what happened after the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound to collect classified documents and released photos of them.
“Any photos of those storage practices could cause a political storm similar to what happened after the release of photos of Trump storing documents at Mar-a-Lago, including in a bathroom,” Axios reported.
Biden previously defended storing documents from his vice presidency in his private garage, saying: “By the way, my Corvette is in a locked garage, so it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street.”
Biden’s lawyers also announced finding classified documents at his Washington, D.C., office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Nov. 2022 — leading to a secret FBI search just days later that the White House and Justice Department did not disclose.
Anthony Coley, former adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland, recently penned an op-ed blasting the administration for its lack of transparency related to the classified documents case.
“Against the backdrop of former President Trump’s indictment on charges of willful and deliberate retention of classified documents, the Biden team’s drip, drip, drip of information made the discoveries seem even worse,” Coley noted.
Unlike Trump’s case, the vice president has no authority to retain classified documents after leaving office.
And unlike Trump’s case, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) was not aware Biden was even in possession of classified documents until it was alerted by Biden’s lawyers.
