US President Joe Biden’s lawyer on Thursday said the classified documents found at his home were ‘inadvertently misplaced’ and that a probe will show the truth.
“We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake,” said Richard Sauber, an attorney for the president.
Sauber added that the president’s team was working closely with the Justice Department and will continue to do so with the newly appointed special counsel.
“We have cooperated closely with the Justice Department throughout its review, and we will continue that cooperation with the special counsel.”
The said admission by Biden’s lawyer comes barely hours after US Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special independent counsel to probe the matter.
Garland appointed Robert Hur, a former Trump-appointed Maryland US attorney to investigate whether Biden has mishandled the top-secret documents or not.
“This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability and particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts, and the law,” said Garland in a statement.
Prior to the appointment, White House spokesman Ian Sams in a statement released reiterated that as soon as the documents were found, National Archives was contacted to turn over the materials.
“As was done in the case of the Penn-Biden Center, the Department of Justice was immediately notified, and the lawyers arranged for the Department of Justice to take possession of these document.”
When quizzed about the discovery, Biden said he was ‘surprised’ and that he did not know that government records had been taken to his private office after he had left public service.
“I was surprised to learn there were any government records that were taken there to that office.”
The revelations come as an ‘egg-on-the-face’ moment for the Democrats who had been hounding former president Donald Trump. Last year, several boxes of classified documents were unearthed from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
(With inputs from agencies)
