Key Witnesses in Biden Case Could Minimize Damning Evidence: Attorney

Potential key witnesses in a hypothetical criminal case against President Joe Biden over his handling of classified documents could be used to minimize evidence, according to one attorney with a history of presidential litigation.

President Biden is currently the subject of a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation after classified documents from his days as Vice President were found at a private office he used in Washington, D.C., prior to his return to the White House. The documents were initially turned up just before November's midterm elections, according to reports released on Tuesday.

Since then, further batches of top-secret documents were found at his residence in Delaware on three separate occasions, continuing to raise concerns about the situation. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appointed former DOJ official Robert Hur to oversee the investigation. As of Monday, the investigation remains ongoing and it is unknown if it will result in any sort of criminal case. The White House has stressed at every juncture that it is cooperating with the DOJ on the matter.

On Monday, attorney Jonathan Turley published a column discussing the situation and Biden's use of lawyers to search his residence for documents. A legal scholar with a specialization in constitutional law, Turley has frequently been involved with litigation against Democratic presidents, having testified in the impeachment trial against Bill Clinton and represented Republican lawmakers in a suit against the Obama administration over the Affordable Care Act. He also spoke out against both impeachment trials against former President Donald Trump.

In the column, Turley argues that Biden's "pricey" reliance on lawyers to search for documents instead of "security officers or the FBI" was an attempt to exert control over the flow of information in the investigation.

"Using private counsel allows Biden to raise attorney-client privilege," Turley wrote. "Trump also used counsel, but eventually the FBI raided his home to search and remove not just classified material but documents found in boxes with that material. While that attorney-client privilege can be overcome under a 'crime/fraud exception,' it adds a level of initial protection. It also allowed Biden to control the discovery and initial record of the discovery of classified information.

In the event that a criminal charge is brought against Biden over the documents case, Turley argues that the lawyers would be "key witnesses" in the case and might work to "minimize" certain evidence against him.

"The key is that unlike FBI agents, these lawyers are not acting on behalf of the public interest but for the president's personal interests," Turley argued. "If there are criminal charges, the key witnesses will be lawyers representing the president as an individual. They are more likely to minimize incriminating or embarrassing elements."

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.