The special counsel appointed to investigate President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents has been negotiating with the president’s lawyers over the terms under which he would be interviewed, according to a report.
Attorneys for Mr Biden and special counsel Robert Hur’s office are focused on the logistics of the interview and the scope of the questions, sources told NBC News.
The negotiations are ongoing, the outlet reported. The investigation into the president’s handling of classified documents found on his Delaware property has been going on since they were discovered last November.
The president’s legal team, NBC News reported, is hoping to know whether the interview would include questions about material beyond the vice presidency, and are hoping to limit the scope of the questions.
It has yet to be determined where or when the interview would take place or even if it would happen in-person, according to the outlet.
A spokesperson for the White House Counsel’s Office said in February that the White House has been “fully transparent from the beginning” about the search for classified documents.
At the time, the spokesperson did not commit to the president sitting down for an interview. But he underscored that “the president has been fully cooperative.”
The White House declined to comment, referring questions to the Justice Department, which also declined to comment. The Independent has also reached out to President Biden’s personal attorney Bob Bauer.
The news of the negotiations comes a week after Special Counsel Jack Smith handed down a superseding indictment against former President Donald Trump regarding his handling of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
Although the two cases have often been compared and cited as examples of a double standard by conservatives, the instances are not that similar. Unlike Mr Biden, whose administration called the National Archives after discovering classified papers at the Penn Biden Center, Mr Trump was not forthcoming with the National Archives, and even refused to hand over his stash of documents.
According to the superseding indictment, the former president “endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued retention of classified documents.”
