Merrick Garland’s appointment of special counsel Robert Hur to investigate the burgeoning Biden documents problem tells us something new about the attorney general. Indeed, even as he turned over to Jack Smith the oversight role in the Justice Department’s investigations of former President Donald Trump, Garland pointedly invoked the letter of the law, the “extraordinary circumstances” that required the appointment of a special counsel. As the President Joe Biden documents surfaced last week — a small number, including classified documents, found in two places — the near-unanimous assessment of commentators has been that Garland had “no choice” but to appoint a special counsel in the matter. By contrast, nothing we know suggests in the slightest that Biden acted intentionally in violation of the law. A special counsel in charge of the investigation takes away a club that the Republican House majority has already begun using to beat up on Garland, the Justice Department and the president.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 16, 2023 16:33 UTC