A pair of Senate Republicans want Department of Justice (DOJ) leaders to explain what they said appears to be a “significant factual omission” in special counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, according to a letter unveiled on Monday.
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Hur seeking details about nine boxes of materials that were allegedly retrieved from the Boston office of a personal attorney to Biden that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) previously said the FBI had reviewed nearly one year ago.
[W]e publicly revealed last year that NARA had retrieved nine boxes of Biden records from the Boston office of Patrick Moore, one of Biden’s personal counsels,” the senators said. “Oddly, Special Counsel Hur’s report did not mention NARA’s retrieval of the nine boxes from Mr. Moore’s office … [I]t is unclear if Special Counsel Hur had any awareness of or reviewed the information contained in these nine boxes.”
The letter was dated Friday, one day after the release of Hur’s report that criticized Biden’s handling of classified documents while out of office. Although Hur did not recommend charges, the 388-page report said Biden exhibited memory problems that likely would preclude a jury from convicting the president.
Hur’s report briefly mentioned how Moore’s office became a “repository” for “Biden’s political materials, such as awards and of speeches,” but, as the senators noted, does not appear to address the nine boxes in question.
Grassley and Johnson have been in contact with NARA, which notified them in March of last year that its staff had fetched the nine boxes from the Boston office at the request of the Justice Department in November of 2022 as part of the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
NARA also divulged the FBI reviewed the contents of the boxes as of March 2023 and said in September that NARA officials had not examined the materials but “will conduct an appropriate review” for sought-after records that contained any pseudonyms or personal email addresses used for official government business.
“DOJ, FBI, and the Special Counsel’s office owe Congress and the American people a complete explanation regarding this apparent omission in Special Counsel Hur’s report, a detailed description of the contents of the nine boxes, and what was done with them,” Grassley and Johnson wrote.
The senators posed a number of questions seeking information about the materials and they requested a response by February 23. The Daily Wire reached out to the DOJ and FBI seeking comment. In response, an FBI spokesperson said the bureau had no comment and referred The Daily Wire to the special counsel.