U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to investigate the classified documents found in one of President Biden's offices in Washington, and in his Delaware home, from when he was vice president 6-years ago.
"Completely unprecedented. I've never heard anything like this," said former Miami attorney Mark Schnapp who spent years in the U.S. Attorney's office. "They shouldn't be held in a private residence they shouldn't be found in the case of President Biden in a garage next to his sports car in the case of president trump; mixed in with personal items."
Schnapp says appointing a special council was the right move, given the parallels with the classified documents found with former President Trump.
"The interesting thing is ultimately the special council in both cases report to the attorney general so they're not quite independent but they do function to some extent independently," said Schnapp.
There are some differences between the classified documents found with Biden and trump including how they came to light, and how both are responding.
"It sort of begs the question, who ultimately is keeping control of classified documents when they're presented to somebody who is allowed to have the classified document to review it is there no way of trailing those documents?" asked WPTV Political Analyst Brian Crowley.
Crowley says the situation between both cases may cancel out politically and could impact Biden's possible re-election.
"This kind of stumble that takes away a major talking point against a potential opponent Donald trump who already announced he's running might be one of those things that starts to push people toward trying to suggest toward Biden that one term is enough," said Crowley.
The White House says it is fully cooperating with the justice department and say that they believe the documents were inadvertently misplaced.
