Sen. Chuck Schumer said Friday he supports the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the discovery of classified documents tied to President Joe Biden.
The Democratic majority leader said it’s “way to early” to say if Biden or anyone else broke any laws in connection with the documents unearthed in a Washington, D.C., office and the president’s home in Delaware.
“We should let it play out. We don’t have to push them in any direction,” Schumer, of New York, told CNN. “Let the special prosecutors do their jobs.”
Schumer pointed to the key differences between the Biden case and that of former President Donald Trump, especially Biden’s cooperation with authorities and Trump’s defiance.
“Trump stalled, stonewalled,” he added.
Democrats have lined up to support the appointment of Robert Hur, a former top prosecutor, as special counsel in the Biden documents probe.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur, a Republican who was previously appointed by Trump, after Chicago federal prosecutor John Lausch recommended the step.
The announcement came shortly after the White House publicly acknowledged that classified papers from Biden’s time as vice president were recently discovered in a garage and adjacent room at the president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.
Richard Sauber, a lawyer for the president, said in a statement that lawyers sweeping the Wilmington residence found a “small number” of records with classified markings during a review that ended Wednesday night.
Government documents were found in Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington in November, according to the White House.
The Justice Department was informed “immediately” in both cases, Sauber said in his statement.
Trump took thousands of government documents with him when he left the White House in 2021.
He handed back some classified documents after the National Archives demanded their return. But the former president refused to hand over hundreds more and even defied a subpoena.
The FBI found about 300 classified documents in an Aug. 8 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort club.
In November, Garland appointed Jack Smith, a veteran prosecutor, to lead inquiries into Trump’s treatment of classified documents and his role in inspiring the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
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