President Biden's team reportedly is fearing photos included in Special Counsel Robert Hur's imminent report on the handling of classified documents could impact his 2024 re-election bid.
Axios reported that Biden's aides do not expect criminal charges as a result of the investigation, but they are concerned about potentially embarrassing photos included in Hur's expected report that could be released as soon as this week. The images could show how Biden stored classified materials, which were discovered in late 2022 in the garage of Biden's Delaware home, as well as in a private office he used. The classified documents were carried over from Biden's time as former President Obama's vice president.
Biden's aides told Axios that they are fearful former President Trump's campaign could use the photos against the Democrat incumbent ahead of their likely 2024 rematch.
Trump himself is facing more than 40 counts, including obstruction of justice and willful retention of national defense information, for improperly storing classified documents at his private residence at Mar-a-Lago in Florida after leaving the White House following a probe by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
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With Hur's report looming, Biden's aides are concerned Trump's campaign could attempt to contrast the handling of the two investigations.
Hur, a former U.S. attorney nominated by Trump in 2017 and a former clerk for conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist, is obligated to write a report about the investigation, and Biden's aides told Axios they expect the report could come as soon as this week, though the exact timing of its release is unknown.
Biden has defended the storing of classified documents in the past.
"By the way, my Corvette is in a locked garage, so it's not like they're sitting out on the street," he once said.
In a CBS "60 Minutes' interview last fall, Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed to make public a special counsel's report related to another matter – the one related to Hunter Biden – "to the extent permissible under the law," and promised to explain the "decisions to prosecute or not prosecute, and their strategic decisions along the way."
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"Usually, the special counsels have testified at the end of their reports, and I expect that that will be the case here," Garland said.
The Justice Department told Axios that Garland is also committed to releasing Hur's report as well.
Anthony Coley, a former senior adviser to Garland, accused the Biden team of slow-walking discovery in the case.
"Against the backdrop of former President Trump's indictment on charges of willful and deliberate retention of classified documents, the Biden team's drip, drip, drip of information made the discoveries seem even worse," he wrote in an op-ed.
