The role of the special counsel is designed to avoid potential conflicts of interest.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday that he was appointing a special counsel to investigate why classified materials were found at President Joe Biden’s home and a former private office.
Robert Hur, a former US attorney in the Trump administration, will take over the investigation. Biden said he is cooperating. Hur will be tasked with determining whether there were any crimes committed in the course of handling the classified materials, which date back to Biden’s tenure as vice president, and are therefore the property of the federal government under the Presidential Records Act.
It’s not the first time in recent months that Garland has called on a special counsel. He also appointed one to investigate former President Donald Trump’s withholding of classified material found at his Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago.
It’s a role that is designed to act at a distance, but not entirely independently, from the Justice Department to avoid the appearance of impropriety in cases where there might be a conflict of interest. Here’s what you need to know.When is a special counsel required?
Justice Department regulations require the attorney general to consider appointing a special counsel when a criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted, and when the DOJ may face a conflict of interest in carrying out such an investigation itself; for example, if the attorney general or another member of the executive branch is under investigation. Special counsels are also required when there are other “extraordinary circumstances” that make it in the public interest to appoint a special counsel, such as a sitting president being under investigation. Garland said Thursday extraordinary circumstances existed in Biden’s case.
It’s not yet clear whether Biden committed any crimes by storing classified documents outside of secure federal facilities; that’s something the special counsel will look into.
