Department of Justice (DOJ) Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents omitted nine boxes of potentially classified records Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) uncovered last March. Grassley and Johnson made the records’ existence public after the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) responded to the senators’ oversight confirming that, at DOJ’s urging, it retrieved the boxes out of concern for the sensitivity of their contents. NARA in its response further acknowledged the FBI had reviewed the contents of the boxes – but it is unclear if either NARA or the FBI ever shared their findings with Special Counsel Hur.
Grassley and Johnson are pressing Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Special Counsel Hur on this “significant factual omission.” Specifically, the senators are asking for a description of the boxes’ contents and an explanation of what the agencies did with them.
“…[W]e publicly revealed last year that NARA had retrieved nine boxes of Biden records from the Boston office of Patrick Moore, one of Biden’s personal counsels,” the senators wrote. “Oddly, Special Counsel Hur’s report did not mention NARA’s retrieval of the nine boxes from Mr. Moore’s office… [I]t is unclear if Special Counsel Hur had any awareness of or reviewed the information contained in these nine boxes.”
“DOJ, FBI, and the Special Counsel’s office owe Congress and the American people a complete explanation regarding this apparent omission in Special Counsel Hur’s report, a detailed description of the contents of the nine boxes, and what was done with them,” the senators concluded.
