No charges expected in probe of President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classifed documents

No criminal charges are reportedly expected to be filed in the investigation of President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.

Special Counsel Robert Hur has decided there are no grounds to charge Biden or anyone else in connection with the finding of a small number of classified documents at his Delaware home and a Philadelphia office he once used, CNN reported, citing sources familiar with the probe.

Hur, a Republican appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, is wrapping up a report into the actions of Biden and others and is expected to file it by the end of the year.

The former federal prosecutor is expected to be critical of Biden in his report but will point out that his actions fall far short of criminal behavior.

Biden says he had no idea that classified documents from his days as vice president were stored in a garage at his home in Wilmington and an office he used during the four years he was out of office.

The president’s lawyers uncovered the cache of documents in Philadelphia last year and notified federal authorities, who retrieved them. The FBI later mounted searches of other sites tied to Biden, which turned up the other documents.

Biden’s actions related to the classified documents case are starkly different from those of former President Donald Trump, who has been charged by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Unlike Biden, Trump admits intentionally taking hundreds of classified documents with him to Mar-a-Lago in Florida when he left the White House in January 2021.

Trump refused to return all the documents to authorities, then defied a federal subpoena demanding their return. He is also charged with trying to thwart the probe by hiding the documents from the feds and even his own defense lawyers, with the help of two lower-level Mar-a-Lago workers.

Trump, who faces a May 2024 trial date in the documents case, allegedly used the documents as ammunition in an odd feud with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, whom Trump says wanted to launch an attack on Iran.

He says he’s innocent.

After the Biden documents case became public, a similarly small set of classified documents were later found by attorneys for former Vice President Mike Pence at Pence’s home near Indianapolis. No special counsel was appointed in that case and federal authorities said the matter was closed without any further action.

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