FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday that federal rules surrounding the mishandling of classified information “are there for a reason” — though he emphasized he wasn’t commenting specifically about the saga engulfing President Joe Biden.
Biden’s personal attorneys said they first discovered classified documents in early November at the Penn Biden Center. The president’s lawyers have since found more classified documents at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home in December and January, and the Department of Justice found more when it conducted its own search Friday. The FBI also conducted an unprecedented raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in August.
At a DOJ press conference announcing the disruption of the Hive ransomware group, Wray was questioned by a reporter if he was concerned that the U.S. government system for accounting for classified information in the executive branch may be broken. It was the FBI director’s first brief foray into the burgeoning scandal surrounding Biden.
“Obviously, I can’t comment on any specific investigation, but we have had for quite a number of years any number of mishandling investigations,” Wray said. “That is, unfortunately, a regular part of our counterintelligence division’s — our counterintelligence program’s — work. And people need to be conscious of the rules regarding classified information and appropriate handling of it. Those rules are there for a reason.”
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Attorney General Merrick Garland selected former Trump appointee U.S. Attorney Robert Hur on Jan. 12 to serve as special counsel to investigate Biden’s potential mishandling of classified documents. Garland also named former Kosovo war crimes prosecutor Jack Smith to handle investigations centered on Trump, including those related to Mar-a-Lago, late last year.

Garland demurred when asked at the same press conference Thursday whether he was considering coordinating the work of the special counsels so they would reach their conclusions on Trump and Biden at the same time so the public could have a fair comparison or whether he viewed that as interference with the work of the special counsels.
“I don’t want to talk about particulars of investigations — particularly not a special counsel investigation. I’ll say, as a general matter, the people we choose for special counsel are experienced prosecutors with experience in the Justice Department. They know how the Justice Department works, they know what the Justice Department’s practices are, and I’m fully confident that they will resolve these matters one way or the other in the highest traditions of the department.”
Garland also said he’s “not going to be able to talk about” it when questioned on whether the Justice Department was asking all former presidents and vice presidents to search any files in their possession for classified records.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, led by Avril Haines, has cited the existence of the special counsel investigations as a reason why the intelligence community has shared only very limited details about the Trump and Biden classified documents sagas, leading to outrage from Republicans and even some Democrats in Congress.
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The Biden White House, including White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and White House spokesman Ian Sams, has also used the special counsel appointment to deflect questions about what Biden knew and when he knew it, citing the investigation by Hur and the DOJ.