President Joe Biden was interviewed over two days as part of the special counsel investigation into classified material found at a former private office and one of his homes in Delaware, the White House said Monday.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden was interviewed over two days as part of the special counsel investigation into classified material found at a former private office and one of his homes in Delaware, the White House said Monday.
“The voluntary interview was conducted at the White House over two days, Sunday and Monday, and concluded Monday,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement. “As we have said from the beginning, the president and the White House are cooperating with this investigation.”
The interview with lawyers from the team of Robert Hur, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the matter, may indicate that the Justice Department is nearing the end of its inquiry.
Former President Donald Trump is facing felony charges related to his retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Prosecutors allege that Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, conspired with aides to obstruct the government’s efforts to reclaim classified material improperly removed from the White House after his term ended in early 2021.
Trump and his supporters have questioned why other elected officials, notably Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence, haven’t been charged for having classified information in their possession after leaving office.
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White House officials have argued the Biden case is different because the president’s staff turned over classified documents voluntarily when they were discovered at an office he had used after serving as vice president, and invited the search of his Delaware homes.
An interview with a sitting president is relatively rare; White House lawyers typically seek to shield the president from direct questioning. Former President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House in part over allegations he perjured himself in testimony to a grand jury convened by independent counsel Ken Starr.
The sessions also came as the president was monitoring the weekend attack by Hamas militants in Israel and between telephone calls with world leaders to coordinate a response.
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