Before President Biden, Donald Trump Also Faced The Investigation Of Special Prosecutors

President Joe Biden. (Wikimedia Commons/The White House)

JAKARTA - United States Attorney General Milik Garland on Thursday announced the appointment of Robert Hur, former Maryland Attorney General as a special prosecutor or special adviser, to investigate the handling of sensitive government documents by President Joe Biden.

The announcement comes hours after a White House attorney on Thursday revealed that President Biden's legal team had found a second collection of classified documents while he was still vice president in storage at his home in Delaware.

Robert Hur will act as a quasi-independent prosecutor to determine whether secret records of Biden's tenure as vice president have been incorrectly stored at his residence in Delaware and think tank in Washington, Attorney General Garland said.

Garland further said Hur would examine "whether anyone or entity violates the law." Meanwhile, the White House promised to work together.

"We believe that a thorough review will show that these documents are accidentally misplaced," White House attorney Richard Sauber said in a statement.

Special prosecutors are sometimes appointed to investigate politically sensitive cases. They carry out separate responsibilities from the leadership of the Justice Department, including Garland, who was appointed by President Biden. Special advisers sometimes, but not always, file criminal charges.

Prior to President Biden, two US Presidents had also faced investigations, namely Donald Trump and Bill Clinton.

Donald Trump is facing an investigation by a special prosecutor who is also former FBI Director Robert Mueller of 2019 during his administration regarding the findings of contacts between Trump and Russia during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

He found enough evidence to file criminal conspiracy charges. Mueller did not release Trump from the alleged obstruction of justice in an attempt to obstruct Russia's investigation, but then Attorney General William Barr, a Trump-appointed man, later released him.

Last November, Attorney General Garland appointed Jack Smith as a special prosecutor to oversee the Justice Department's investigation regarding Donald Trump, including the handling of classified documents of former Republican presidents and attempts to cancel the 2020 elections.

Much earlier, independent prosecutors, a position similar to a special prosecutor, served during Bill Clinton's presidency investigating the 1990s Whitewater political scandal and the Democratic president's sexual scandal with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The investigation led to Clinton's impeachment by the House of Representatives, even though he was released by the Senate.

Citing DC Student Defense, although it has similar responsibilities, there is a difference between a special prosecutor and an independent prosecutor. If a special prosecutor is appointed by the Attorney General or the Acting Attorney General. Meanwhile, the independent prosecutor is appointed by the court at the request of the Attorney General.

As previously reported, Attorney General Garland ruled a special advisor was needed in the Biden case, after an initial investigation was carried out by John Lausch, Trump's appointed person who served as the highest federal prosecutor in the Chicago region.

"This appointment underscores the department's public commitment to independence and accountability in very sensitive matters, and to make decisions that are only guided by facts and laws," he stressed at a press conference.

While President Biden and Trump now face investigations from special prosecutors, who are usually appointed to politically sensitive cases to ensure the level of independence of the Justice Department leadership, that does not mean their cases are the same.

"We believe that a thorough review will show that these documents are accidentally misplaced," White House attorney Richard Sauber said in a statement.

Biden's lawyers said they had found less than a dozen classified documents and submitted relevant documents after finding them. Trump declined to do so until the August FBI search found about 100 classified documents, raising questions about whether Trump or his staff were obstructing the investigation.

"The fact is very different. The only thing in common is that there are classified documents brought from the White House elsewhere," said Kel McClahan, head of law firm National Security Cou Embess.