Top Biden aides questioned in classified documents case

Robert K. Hur, the special prosecutor in charge of the investigation, has questioned many of the highest-ranking officials of the White House and the US cabinet over the past nine months, following the discovery of classified documents in Mr. Biden’s office at a research organization as well as at his private home, according to a report in The New York Times on September 28.

The newspaper, citing sources familiar with the matter, said those interviewed by Mr. Hur included officials who worked with Mr. Biden both during the late stages of President Barack Obama’s administration and now. Two prominent names among them were Steve Ricchetti, a top official at the White House, and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser.

Các trợ lý hàng đầu của ông Biden bị thẩm vấn trong vụ tài liệu mật - Ảnh 1. — US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan

Prosecutors have also questioned Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been a key foreign policy adviser to Mr. Biden for decades; Ron Klain, who served as White House chief of staff until earlier this year; and Michael R. Carpenter, the former executive director of the Penn Biden Center who is now the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The investigation is largely focused on determining the chronology of sensitive documents stored at the Washington DC think tank office (which was set up for Mr Biden after he left office as vice president under Obama) and at his and his wife's Delaware home, according to the sources.

Mr. Hur’s team also scrutinized whether longtime Biden aides and the president himself followed confidentiality procedures in handling and storing government documents and Mr. Biden’s private notes during his time as vice president, the sources said.

One of the thorniest unresolved issues is whether Mr. Biden would consent to Mr. Hur’s questioning, which typically occurs in the final stages of such an investigation. Mr. Biden could also answer questions in writing or interact with Mr. Hur’s team through the White House legal team and his own lawyers.

Mr. Biden predicts he will "rematch" Mr. Trump in the 2024 presidential race

Mr. Hur’s investigation is unlikely to compare in scope or severity to the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Mr. Trump was criminally indicted on charges including mishandling national security documents and conspiring with two employees to obstruct the government’s efforts to recover the documents.

Biden’s lawyers immediately notified the National Archives when they discovered the classified documents in late 2022 and have since cooperated with the Justice Department. Trump, on the other hand, refused the archives’ requests, initially handing over only a portion of what he had taken, failed to respond to a subpoena to return the rest, and eventually had his home and office raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

But the investigation into Mr. Biden, even if it ends without criminal charges, still poses political challenges for a sitting president who enters an election year with low approval ratings.

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