earlier today i signed an order appointing robert herr as a special counsel.ent authorizes him to investigate whether entity violated the law. the special counsel will not be subject to the day-to-day supervision of any official in the department, but must comply with the procedures and policies of the department. mr. -- mr. her as a distinguished career as a prosecutor. he joined the department's criminal division, where he worked on counterterrorism, corporate fraud, and appellate matters. from 2007 to 2014 mr. h.e.r. served as a u.s. attorney for the district of maryland. in 2017 mr. herr rejoined the department as the associate deputy attorney general. in 2018 he was nominated and confirmed to serve as a u.s. attorney for the district of maryland. as u.s. attorney he supervised some of the department's more important national security public corruption and other high-profile matters. i will ensure that mr. herr receives all of the resources he needs to conduct his work. as i have said before, i strongly believe the normal processes of this department can h

and merrick garland and now the appointment of robert herr. talking with swing voters in florida this week for axios for an ongoing focus group panel we do, that group, it's very early still. they think the problem with biden's documents having the classified documents is a serious problem. they still think trump's handling of his much larger array of classified documents is a bigger problem, but he thinks this is a bigger problem. he thinks if biden wants to distinguish himself politically, legally he's handling things appropriately and cooperating. politically he's running for president again, so p isn't donald trump. biden has to get ahead of this and be more transparent and forthcoming than he has so far. >> let's talk about this. santos still refusing to step down, this new congressman from new york. our manu raju tried to get answers from him. listen. >> why did you lie to your voters about your qualifications, your past, being jewish? why did you lie to them? don't the voters deserve an explanation about your widespread lies? are you sa

. >> i'm here today to announce the appointment of robert herr, special counsel. >> it was in the interest to appoint a special counsel. >> we need to run. everybody, y'all hear me. when we say we are blessed, we are blessed. >> announcer: live from london, this is "cnn newsroom" with max foster and bianca nobilo. >>> it is friday, january 13th. 9 a.m. here in london where many people around the world are mourning the loss of lisa marie presley, elvis's only child. ♪ ♪ >> here she is singing "i love you, pops" in a duet with her father, the king of rock and roll. lisa marie followed in his footsteps becoming a musician, singer and songwriter. >> she released three albums. one of which reached gold. the life with lisa marie presley. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: lisa marie presley seen here at the globe awards tuesday she was rushed to the hospital after suffering cardiac arrest. her mother priscilla presley issued a statement saying she and her family are, quote, shocked and devastated and are asking for privacy at this time. ♪ >> reporter: elvis presley's only child, lisa marie was years old when the

that's the only statute that robert herr is looking at in this case. besides robert herr, it's jack smith that is feeling political pressure. that is a -- he has a much tougher situation. while he is publicly what he does is a totally different situatio practically speaking, he has to look at it. it goes a long way to determining whether or not the same conduct, if it is the same conduct, and by then, i mean taking the documents down. everyone agrees what trump did afterward is a lot different if what biden's team did. to get it to an unsecure place. i think both special counsel are going to be watching each other. >> the biden matter complicate the ability to charge donald trump. "the washington post" perry stein and danny savalis, thank you for getting us started. still ahead on "way too early," a new fight looming over the debt ceiling. plus, the latest in the saga surrounding republican congressman george santos. democrats are questioning how long republicans have known about his web of lies. those stories and much more when we come right back. e s

merrick garland announced he has appointed robert herr as a special counsel. herr is a d.c. lawyer right now. he previously served as a u.s. lawyer until 2021. he had been appointed by president trump, the previous administration. the announcement from garland came just after the white house announced classified records had also been found at president biden's home in wilmington, delaware, including some in his garage. this discovery was in addition to the classified records that had been found at biden's private office in washington, d.c., as phil mattingly reports for us. it is confident the documents were, quote, inadvertently misplaced. >> i'm here today to announce the appointment of robert herr for special counsel. it was in the public interest to appoint a special counsel. >> reporter: attorney general merrick garland appointed robert herr to investigate and revealing a lot more detail about an issue biden and his lawyers kept quiet for weeks and had desperately tried to manage since the story broke four days ago. >> people know i take classified documents, classified

earlier today, i signed an order appointing robert herr as spesh counsel for the matter i just described. it was to allow him any investigation. the special counsel will not be subject to the day-to-day supervision of any official of the department but he must comply with the regulations, procedures, and policies of the department. mr. herr has a long and distinguished career as a prosecutor. in 2003, he joined the department's criminal division where he worked on counterterrorism, corporate fraud and appellate matters. from 2007 until 2014, mr. herr served as an assistant district attorney for maryland. in 2017, he rejoined the department as the principal associate deputy attorney general. in 2018, he was nominated and confirmed to serve as a u.s. attorney for the district of maryland. as u.s. attorney, he supervised some of the department's more important national security, public corruption, and other high-profile matters. i will ensure that mr. herr receives all the resources he needs to conduct his work. as i said before, i strongly believe that the normal processes of this departme

now this is under the purview of special counsel robert herr, it's interesting the justice department is leading this search. it looks like we're getting closer to approximately 30 different documents with classified markings found in two different locations connected to the president, both a former office and his wilmington home. this is late on a saturday that they're revealing this, so they are at least coming forward with this information. it's not leaking out to the press. they're emphasizing their cooperation, because they believe cooperation is what sets this case apart from the investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information by former president trump at mar-a-lago. >> in fairness, this wrapped up late last night this search by doj. so clearly there is a lot that goes into releasing a statement like this of information in a doj investigation. no doubt there will be a stark look at this from republicans, who have been drawing distinctions between the biden investigation and the trump investigation. i was just interviewing republican mike turner on the show

the special counsel robert herr used to be chris ray's assistant.inally be blackmailing the bidens? victor davis hanson is a senior fellow at the hoover institution and a national review institute fellow. vdh, whoa, where's there's smoke where there's fire. what do you think? >> they haven't been transparent in the past. they're not transparent now, which means they feel they can't afford to be transparent in the future there is two issues as i see it. for seven years people will have basically assumed the biden family had been compromised through ukraine and china to take two examples. but that story died because of the political nature of the campaign and its presidency. but this is a link that threatens to blow it up. especially when you have a special counsel investigating hunter. and that introduces the second. how would it blow up? well, when donald trump's papers were sort of caused a feeding frenzy among the media, there were two questions. remember, what was the nature of the classified material and why did donald trump have it? before he c

his choice, robert herr previously searched as u.s. attorney for maryland. >> earlier today i signed an order appointing robert herr a special counsel for the matter i've justified described the document authorizes him to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with this matter. >> on capitol hill more house republicans are calling for representative george santos to resign fellow new york congressman mike lawler sy said santos loz suppot of constituents and that santos should step down, and also it was added, "obviously he won't." government agencies say global temperatures did not set a record in 2022, but it was the fifth or sixth hottest year on record the agencies agree the important trend is that temperatures over the last seven years are above previous levels. tyler? >> thank you very much, bertha coombs. >>> ahead on "power lunch," yields on the move following today's cpi report investors looking for any clue on where the fed will take interest rates next. we will hear from pimco's jerome schneid

robert herr is a 2001 graduate. from stanford law school. then, was a clerk for two judges appointed by republican president, ronald reagan, including the chief justice of the united states supreme court. william rehnquist. then, the most conservative member of the supreme court. robert her, has made this three political contributions to republican candidates going to john mccain's losing republican campaign in 2008. >> mr. her, has a long and distinguished career as a prosecutor. because of some three, he joined the departments critical division where he worked on counterterrorism, corporate fraud, and appellate manners. from 2007 into 2014, this to her served as an assistant u. s. attorney for the district of maryland and prosecuted manners ranging from violent crime to -- in 2017 mr. her rejoin the department. as a principal associate deputy attorney general. in 2018, he was nominated and confirmed to serve as a u.s. attorney but the district of maryland. as u.s. attorney, supervise some of the departments more important national security

attorney robert herr to investigate the possible mishandling of classified documents and revealing more detail about an issue biden and his lawyers kept quiet for weeks and have desperately tried to manage since the story broke four days ago. >> people know i take classified documents and material seriously. >> reporter: coming after biden's second public statement about a second set of classified documents found at a second location. >> as part of that process, my lawyers reviewed other places where documents from my time as vice president were stored and they finished the review last night. they discovered a small number of documents with classified markings in storage areas in file cabinets in my hope in my personal library. >> reporter: garland's timeline underscoring at the time of biden's first statement on the issue earlier this week. >> cooperating fully, cooperating fully with the review which i hope will be finished soon. >> reporter: his lawyers had been aware of the second set of documents discovered at his wilmington home for nearly a month. a timeline that started with the

we do a little bit about robert herr, that he was a former prosecutor so that skillset goes into this know how long they investigates this. i'm just wondering your thoughts early on that the president might not have known this was going on. i don't know if that's better or worse. i mean, you could make a clear argument that if you're unaware that's an even bigger issue. how did those documents get there, but what do you think >> i think that i would believe him if he said he didn't know he had those documents in possession. look, we need to know who all had access to the president. the story doesn't add up, neil. when he said that his lawyers discovered these documents on november 2 when they were moving boxes out of his office, does anyone really believe that lawyers are involved in the moving business? who would pay high dollar lawyer s to physically move boxes and documents in a move from one office space to the other? i'm not buying that, and then i'm concerned that this was discovered on november 2. why aren't we just now finding out about it? the only reason we know about this w

tense white house briefing coming just a couple hours after attorney general merrick garland named robert herr, a former u.s. attorney who worked in the trump administration as the special counsel in the biden administration. coming hours after more classified documents were found at biden's home in delaware. president biden's lawyer said, quote, all but one document was found in storage in biden's garage and one document was in stored materials in an adjacent room. biden today had this to say about handling the classified documents properly oddly saying the garage is also where his prized corvette seen here in a 2020 campaign ad were stored. >> by the way, my corvette is in a locked garage, okay, so it's not like they're sitting out on the street. >> as i said it was a bit odd of an explanation. here's the thing, we're just learning about all this this week, and that is by choice and design. the first batch of documents were found on november 2nd at biden's office in washington, d.c. thathey were given to the national archives the next day. on november 4th the doj was notified. during this th

. >> the special counsel is robert herr. a former deputy attorney general and u.s. attorney from maryland. there's a separate counsel, special counsel, currently investigating president trump's possession of classified documents as well. >>> a missing bay area toddler back with her family. you might recall andrea flores was abducted by her noncustodial father on new year's day. the sheriff's department said she was found safe in mexico and brought back here to her family in the bay area. there was no word on the fate of her father, victor flores enriquez. >>> a check of inflation shows ic hikes are slowing. >> scott joins us now. it's a trend that's been true since about june. >> and a very welcome trend at that. good morning. in june, we hit a peak with prices up 9.1% on the year. our latest reading on the consumer price index shows prices at 6.5%. trending downwards. if anything, this number's pointed the wrong way. the government comes up with a cpi month by month measuring prices. i've chosen just a few of the interesting ones off the report. it's pages and page

but former federal prosecutor robert herr in the white house was quick to declare joe biden. satr is ready to cooperate both with the investigation and with the special prosecutor and expressed confidence that the check will show the documents were in the wrong place. quite by accident, i note the department of justice closed the republicans in congress access to information and conduct their own investigation. they can't honesty the proceedings are already calling into question, as the former cia officer said the authorities will drag out the investigation and try to cover up possible abuse. republican congressmen have begun an investigation into the withdrawal of us troops from afghanistan, one of the members of the house of representatives sent a state request to provide documents on this topic, the deadline for a response is january 26, according to cnn, who read the letter from the congressman in the list of requested documents, in particular, a list of all interdepartmental withdrawal meetings troops, while the republican threatened the state department with litigation

robert herr in the white house hastened to declare joe biden, ready to cooperate with the investigationd with the special prosecutor, and expressed confidence that the check would show the documents were in the wrong place. quite by accident , i note that the department of justice closed the republicans of congress access to information and conduct their own investigation. they can not honesty of the proceedings are already questioned, as stated by the former cia officer, the authorities will drag out the investigation and try hide possible abuse. in kazakhstan, the constitutional law on the first president of the republic and the leader of the nation has lost its force, and the bass is right in the parliament. he considered the issue in two readings at once and unanimously supported both chambers on the eve of nursultan nazarbayev, and all at once lost the honorary senator. this title is generally excluded from the regulations. senate of the country, all these actions are taken following the results of a national referendum, changes and additions to the constitution, which were support

robert k. herr has been named, currently a litigation partner in a law firm, the 48th united states attorney for the district of maryland and it is official announced by merrick garland. >> john: and some of the back story to how long the investigation has quietly, and stressed quietly been going on, since november 4th, when the doj was first notified the documents had been found at the penn biden center and subsequent to that, more documents were found in his garage at his home in wilmington, and then at the beginning of this year, the fbi came to merrick garland, or sorry, losh, the special counsel came to garland and said this warrants the appointment of a special counsel and see where it takes us. what a big day this is. >> martha maccallum is still with us, and bret baier joining us. reaction to what we just heard from the attorney general there. >> bret: this is big news, and as jonathan turley said, it was expected because the attorney general was backed into an attorney here. if you are goin

will: robert herr appointed to look into joe biden.ittle overview of the classified documents, off the wall. reigns leading which he will, to you. rachel, over to you. rachel: they say where there's smoke, there's fire but i see the fire. thanks, guys. great off the wall. we begin with this, air raid sirens are heard across ukraine earlier this morning as russian missiles hit critical instrategies structure in -- infrastructure in kyiv and other cities. no injuries reported yet. this is the first attack on the capitol in over a week. meanwhile ukraine st is getting more support from the united kingdom and the british prime minister is giving the green light to send tankers and artillery systems to the forces. a california mom filing a federal lawsuit against the chico unified district for allegedly pressuring her 11-year-old daughter to be transgenderrer and keep it asecret. this is a fifth grader. this outraged parent joined jesse watters to discuss. >> never gave permission for the school counselor to see my daughter one-on-one, whic

meanwhile, special counsel robert herr released his own statement saying, i will conduct the assigned investigation with fair and partial and dispassionate judgment. i iend to follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly without fear or favor and will honor the trust placed in me to perform this service. more now on the appointment of a special counsel with white house press secretary karine jean-pierre. she was asked how classified materials wound up in president biden's office and delaware home and reactions to this week's disclearures. the documents were recovered in november, 2022, and the ones at his privates remain democratic were -- residents were discovered in december, 2022. karine: all right, chris, it's yours. reporter: a few questions about the classified documents. is the president willing to be interviewed by federal investigators about his handling? karine: let me just say i'm not going to get into hypotheticals. this is something for the department of -- reporter: [indiscernible] -- karine: it's in the -- ongoing review, right? you're asking me about something in the fawt a

. >> the investigation is now in the hands of robert herr who was appointed special counsel just last week. andrew mckay weighed in on some of the questions that may be asked. >> it's going to first be you think of it as chain of custody type of questions. they're going to say to somebody who was present when the documents were discovered in the penn biden office, they're going to say, okay, where were you in relation to the closet where the documents were found? what did they look like? what were they stored in? was that storage container sealed with tape or with other materials? who lifted it out of the closet? what did you do next? you know, where did you then keep these documents until the national archives folks came to retrieve them all down to the details of any involvement and then broader scope. people who were in that office who can talk to you about the scope of people who had access to the office over time. people who can talk about president biden's habits in terms of how often was he at the office? when he was there, where did he sit? did he ever ask you to get things ou

the special counsel investigating the biden documents will be robert herr.ith is investigating the trump documents. they're both very talented doj veterans. the notable difference between the two, jack smith was appointed 38 weeks after the fbi found documents at trump's house. herr eight weeks after the biden's own lawyers, three days after the public was told about it. one would imagine the office of the staff of the four remaining presidents are looking through their files. the pie deny staff says they didn't know they had any confidential rare documents at all and of course that's the key difference between the biden case and trump case. in the trump case the national archives had a list of things it was missing. it asked for them back. trump staff said they didn't have them, but they did. ash carter, the former defense secretary, was remembered in a celebration of life yesterday. the first to allow women to fight in combat, the first defense secretary to work and travel with two silicon valley very often to help bring our technology to our fighting men

robert herr is his name.special counsel, he has more autonomy to take the investigation wherever he wants to go without having to go through the standard structure of the justice department. all in all, it does lead to a lot of risks for the biden administration. dani: speaking of risks in the u.s., i was quite taken by some of the language we heard from gop representatives around the debt ceiling over the weekend, the judgment from texas saying expect eight knife fight -- expect a knife fight on the debt ceiling. what comes next? bruce: good question. we've been through this before, there have been many debt ceiling showdowns over the years. the latest one will probably not take place for a while still. janet yellen has said the u.s. will come up against the ceiling sometime soon, sometime this month. however, that sets things in motion for the treasury department to take extraordinary measures, probably not even extraordinary, just special measures that extend the deadline. most analysts expect we will real

. >> i'm here today to announce the appointment of robert herr as a special counsel. >> reporter: for a second day slamming house republicans who have launched two probes of their own. white house spokesman saying the lawmakers have, quote, no credibility and are playing politics in an attempt to attack president biden. >> house republicans lose credibility when they engage in fake outrage about an issue that they're clearly pursuing only for partisan gain. >> reporter: followed by a conference call tuesday to level the attacks but the messaging doing little to address it. >> we will be limited with what we can share. >> reporter: with little detail on the two-month period from the initial discovery of documents on november 2nd to the december 20th discovery of more documents to a third and fourth discovery of documents just last week. as white house officials maintain the ongoing investigation will continue to limit their public answers. >> i understand there's a tension between protecting and safeguarding the integrity of an ongoing investigation. >> reporter: a clear public effort

. >> pete: the attorney general isn't convinced appointing special counsel robert herr to investigate. >> on december 20th, president biden's personal counsel informed mr. lausch that additional documents bearing classification markings were identified in the garage of the president's private residence. >> that date is a problem because that means the president's team knew about a second discovery of material and left it out of tuesday's initial comment. >> they found some documents in a box, in a locked cabinet or at least a closet. >> white house lawyer richard sauber says we have cooperated closely with the justice department throughout its review and we will continue that cooperation with the special counsel. we are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced. republicans have questions of their own. >> i think congress has to investigate this. >> some democrats claim something else may be afoot. >> things can be planted. things can be planted in places and then discovered conveniently. that may be what has occurred here. i'm not ru

robert herr who was appointed by attorney general merrick garland to investigate the matter. said the president did not know the previously discovered records were in his home. adding that his team reached out to the national archives. >> house republicans announced their own investigation saying the american people deserve accountability and transparency as the government is conducting a probe into the hundreds of classified documents found at former president trump's florida home. >>> and, coming up, the innovative way that one start-up is blending the very old with the very new to help save one of >>> there are concerns that industrial's famous great barrier reef could soon be lost because of climate change. now in a world first start-up is trying to help coral adapt to the problems humans have caused. rami anocencio took a dive to show us. >> reporter: splashing into hong kong's subtropical waters, you may be surprised to hear more coral lives here than the caribbean. this swath of the south china sea used to boast more beauty. >> what was here 100 years ago? >> we believ

hopefully, robert herr, the newly appointed special counsel conduct themselves with the dispassionate judgment and get to the truth here. in the meantime, republicans who've been railing against merrick garland for two years. they have a different tune to sing today. senator lindsey graham is happy about. it saying that he appreciates garland decision to appoint a special counsel. and that it is in the quote, best interest of the country. the speaker of the house, kevin mccarthy, he has mixed feelings about this. on the one hand, throwing president biden under the microscope was exactly what they wanted. on the other hand, you want to do it his way. with his people, using his committees. he was the republican leader this morning before garland's announcement. >> we don't think there needs to be a special prosecutor. i think congress needs to investigate this. >> in the, and it's awkward to claim the federal government's weaponized against you when it is simultaneously announcing a criminal investigation into your political opponent. joining us now is charlie savage, covering the story

. >> attorney general merrick garland has tapped robert herr a former u.s.in maryland who served as a senior justice department official in the trump administration to lead this probe. now, let's look at the timeline, guys. it all started november 4th. the first time classified material was discovered. national archives contacted doj to report classified documents biden center office here in the nation's capital. documents had been secured in the national archives. now, on november 9th. the fbi begins to investigate. on november 1st. garland assigns john lausch. just before christmas a second batch of classified documents discovered. informed lausch additional documents found at biden's private home in wilmington. on january 5th. lausch briefed garland and advised that a special counsel was warranted. just yesterday, a third -- for the third time classified materials discovered. biden's counsel called lausch and said this additional document was identified. under questioning from our own peter doocy, president biden admitted some of this classified material

there is a department of justice and robert herr, representative of biden's legal team should be present. the legal team can and i think will say, hey, here's the protocol. they'll consult. and then the special counsel will make a decision how they want to work that out. often during my career, you deal with different situations for document review with a special counsel in place they ought to be able to work that out. that is the difference between the trump case and biden case. biden is cooperating from the beginning. and continues to try to cooperate. there has been some questions, legitimate questions about the pr angle of it. they'll continue to do that, i think. >> thank you both. >>> and we do continue to follow breaking news out of massachusetts right now. a murder warrant was just issued for bryan walsh. that is the husband of the mother of three who has been missing since new year's day. what we're following all of the latest developments, we'll bring those to you. >> and video of a toddler in a diaper waving a gun. his father is in jail. we'll have details for you next. which

searched his delaware home and found additional documents and garland appointed a special counsel, robert herrame day, white house lawyers found five more pages of classified pages. and then finally, on friday, january 20th, the fbi searched biden's wilmington home. once again, finding more classified materials. now, earlier, cnn spoke with a professional lecturer in law at george washington university law school and he discussed the declassification authority that's been claimed by former president donald trump and whether that could be a factor in this case. listen. >> president trump referenced declassification authority during his presidency, but there was no evidence of the declassification that i was able to glean. and that was unsuccessful for him. now, president biden is the sitting president of the united states. he is actually the ultimately classification authority under the executive order that governs the classification of national security information and its definition, essentially. and if he wanted to, although it's -- i don't think he ever would, it would be politically disast

he has named former trump appointed prosecutor robert herr to the job hot white house says they willte with fully during the course of this review. yesterday garland also broke down the investigation timeline. so on november 4th three days before the midterm elections the national archives contacts the department of justice to report classified documents found at the penn biden office in d.c. on the #th, the fbi begins assessment. by the 1st, garland assigns john lausch to perform an internal investigation. december 20th is when discovery number two happens as biden lawyers report additional documents were found at the president's private home in wilmington and yesterday, more documents were found and reported by the president's counsel. here is the president. >> my lawyers reviewed other places where documents in -- from my time as vice president were stored and they finished the review last night. they discovered a small number of documents of classified markings in storage areas and file cabinets in my home and my personal library. the department of justice was immediately onotifi

elizabeth: what do you make of ag garland appointing a special counsel robert herr to investigate classifiedof all it is ridiculous for anybody to say there is no there, there. these documents have just been revealed. there is no choice for an investigation. for garland, this is a smart political move. there is no downside doing it. there is no downside if he doesn't appoint a special counsel. elizabeth: twitter i officials inside the company claiming there was no there there, democrats claiming russian bots and patrols in 2016 election with helping trump. they found no evidence of that. jerry nadler said this was a real thing. "the washington post" put out a story that russian trolls had little influence on 2020. >> twitter folks actually thought the democrats were acting in good faith. they were actually trying to explain to them that there is no there there. they finally realized they were being had. it didn't stop them from caving in. ultimately caving in to the incest ant demands of the fbi and democrats. it was really opening, they told senator feinstein, they told adam schiff, and tol

what are some key questions, do you think, special counsel robert herr should ask in this investigation really are how did they get removed from the white house? what was done with them? was there any additional dissemination or sharing of them with anybody? what was done once he was notified or they notified themselves of the presence of these documents, that is, was there cooperation? and was this really inadvertent or intentional. that's really an inflection point. inadvertence or intentionality and then cooperation, lack of cooperation after the discovers were disclosed. >> so that's sort of comparing and contrasting, i think, two different cases here with the former president and the current president, right? president biden says he is surprised by the discovery of these documents. former president trump had reportedly ordered an employee to move boxes at mar-a-lago after he received a subpoena. can this have legal effect or impact in determining the criminal intent in each case? >> yeah, absolutely. in a case where you have unintentionally taken and then upon disclosure of that re

. >> the man investigating the president's special counsel, robert herr has quite a resume. he was a u.s. attorney in maryland, a trump-appointed u.s. attorney in maryland that received praise from both sides of the aisle. he also worked here at the justice department to deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. this is robert herd's first week on the job investigating the sitting president of the united states. the special counsel to president biden announced his discovered five different classified documents on thursday. the documents were discovered at the president's delaware home. the revelation has some of the president's biggest defenders answering and asking tough questions. >> it's an embarrassment. is there more to it? i doubt it. we'll find out from the special counsel as he goes about his business. >> and that's from democrats. republicans, martha, have taken it a step further and insist the president is being treated with favoritism compared to his predecessor when the fbi searched mar-a-largo in august. republican texas congressman dan crenshaw tweeted this is hy

i'm here today to announce the appointment of robert herr as a special counsel. >> reporter: the whitean on monday saying lawmakers, quote, have no credibility and are playing politics in a shamelessly hypocritical attempt to attack president biden. >> house republicans lose credibility when they engage in fake outrage about an issue they're clearly pursuing for partisan gain. >> reporter: followed by a conference call tuesday to level more attacks, but the messaging effort doing little to address critical questions. >> with the appointment of a special counsel we will continue to be limited in what we can share publicly. >> reporter: with little detail on the more than two-month period on the initial discovery of documents december 2nd to december 20th discovery of initial documents to a third and fourth discovery of additional documents just last week. but as white house officials maintain the ongoing investigation will continue to limit their public answers -- >> i understand there's a tension between protecting and safeguarding the integritiy of an ongoing investigation with provid

. >> i'm here today to announce the appointment of robert herr as a special council pursuant to department of justice regulations governing such matters. this appointment underscores for the public the department's commitment to both independence and accountability and particularly sensitive matters. and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law. >> when classified documents are found outside of government confines there are always questions that need to be answered, but it sure does feel like the attorney general was quick on the draw to make that announcement or maybe it feels that way giving the agonizing slowness of similar actions taken against donald trump. let's not forget, it took a year and a half following the negotiating, the begging, and the pleading by the national archives and the doj to try to get back all of the classified documents that trump took. when he left the white house, before garland appointed a special counsel to look into that, it started with the first request for documents by the national archives back in may of 2021. they didn't ge

i'm grateful to them earlier today, i signed an order appointing robert herr as special counsel, it authorizes him to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with this matter special counsel will not be subject to the day to day supervision of any official of the department but he must con apply comply with the regulations and procedures and policies of the department he has a long and distinguished career he joined the criminal division in 2003. from 2007 until 2014, mr. herr served asassistant u.s. attorney for the district of maryland where he prosecuted matters ranging from violent crime to financial fraud and in 2017, rejoined the department and in 2018, he was nominated and confirmed to serve as u.s. attorney for the district of maryland as u.s. attorney, he supervised some of the department's more important national security, public corruption and other high profile matters. i will ensure that mr. herr receives all the resources he needs to conduct his work. as i have said before, i strongly believe the normal processes of this department can handle all i

previous block about the impeccable credentials in what should be a nonpartisan investigation led by robert herrppointed by former president trump, he had worked with chris wray and rod ro rosenstein. what do you expect to hear from republicans in particular but democrats as well in response to this news? >> i think it's going to be very hard to criticize his reputation, his credentials. he was a clerk for justice rehnquist. i am told by sources in the justice community that he has impeccable conservative credentials. so i think that merrick garland has picked someone whose impartiality in all of this is not going to be questioned. as andy mccabe said earlier, just going through his resume. one other thing i think it's worth talking about, we have seen documents mishandled with both donald trump and now joe biden. but i went back to talk to sources who have worked with past presidents, vice presidents, also sources who are familiar with the national archives. this doesn't happen a lot. it is true that from time to time high-level officials will find a folder in the back of a closet. there are in

special counsel robert herr taking the special counsel, unfolding by the hour. that's not an exaggeration. i'm told things got to a point where attorney general garland had to appoint a special counsel, because it involves his boss, the president of the united states. >> i am confident that he will carry out his responsibility in an even-handed and urgent manner, and in accordance with the highest traditions of this department. >> during his announcement today the attorney general stood next to the outgoing u.s. attorney in chicago, a trump appointee, asked on november 14th to look into the original set of biden classified documents found at the penn-biden center on november. 2nd. days after he was asked to look into that matter on november 18th garland announced the appointment of jack smith to look into the trump classified documents investigation, meaning as garland announced the trump special counsel he knew in his mind that the current president, biden, also had some issues with classified documents. now, the attorney general was most recently with presiden

attorney robert herr, to probe the mishandling the classified documents by president biden and his office. nbc is reporting that one of the handful of documents found at his former office in washington was top secret. >> the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter. this appointment underscores for the public the department's commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters and to making decisions guided only by the facts and the law. >> joining me now, julia ainsley, peter alexander, "new york times" chief white house correspondent peter baker and andrew weissmann, former senior prosecutor for the mueller investigation. we have a better time line of events and discoveries. although, it came out in dribs and drabs. >> that's right. we got a better picture of that yesterday from the announcement by attorney general garland. the biden attorneys found fewer than a dozen documents at penn university. they informed the national archives. on november 14th, that's when garland launches his investigation head

robert herr, former federal prosecutor he worked for the doj under ex president trump.s role as principal counselor to then deputy attorney general -- her participated in a white house press conference about the ms-13 gang which was seen as many at the time as a disturbing blurring of lines between the presidency and law enforcement. in 2017, trump nominated herr, to be the u.s. attorney for maryland. a role he remained until february 2021. so, the big question we're left with today, is what is this all mean? so, first of all, it's clear there is some genuine questions that president biden and the white house will have to answer to. and special counsels can be a bit of a wildcard. here's an example, look at john durham, remember that? guy the special counsel appointed by trump attorney general bill barr to investigate the investigators. in donald trump's telling, durham was tasked with getting to the root of the investigation of widespread correction in the deep state. and of course, the investigations been an absolute wild goose chase. in, fact the durham investigation

now, regardless though of whether or not it was a mistake , ag merrick garland has appointed robert herrto investigate the documents, a former trump- appointed federal prosecutor, the white house says they will cooperate during the course of this review. i would just point out, the misplaced it not once, twice , but three times, inadvertently. stuart: awful isn't it? the latest batch of documents at the president's wilmington house , with hundreds of visitors to that house but there was no log. we don't know who they were. christian whitton is here. we don't know who these people are, were, or are, and they had access, presumably, to the files found in the wilmington house. this can't go on. we've got to know who these folks are. >> right, and it be interesting question whether that information can be produced. after all, president biden, excuse me, vice president biden left office as vice president, you have some security, you have some accountability but it's not the level of scrutiny and control that the secret sergio marccione advice would apply to a former president, so biden says t

i'm here today to announce the appointment of robert herr as a special counsel. >> presidential historianle moment in our nation's history. how rare is it for one president to face a special counsel let alone the sitting president and his immediate predecessor? >> well, we live in weird and strange times. this is not just unprecedented. it's horrific. our country has its two political leaders, donald trump for the republicans, ex-president, and sitting president joe biden both guilty or charged of at least having classified documents they shouldn't have. it's going to be interesting in the case of biden to see what are these top secret, what happened. we have a big whodunit thing going on. but since the birth of the special counsel when janet reno appointed john danworth to look into waco, we started having more and more of these, you know, attorney generals picking up, like bob mueller did when trump was president with russia and doing a two-year dig. and i'm afraid trump and biden are both in the same both together right now. they're in trouble. >> so we did a little bit of research to

especially as we heard merrick garland map out these key plots on the timeline when he announced robert herr and it's something the white house gets asked about daily and this is the first we've ever heard of this search. >> mem, i want to know what you're hearing from white house searches on that and all the other things the president would prefer to be talking about like for example, what republicans are up to. we're getting word that the president has gone after the way that speaker mccarthy locked down that speakership, criticizing him for making what he described as off the wall promises to other members of the republican party. >> if you want insight into what he's going to be saying in his state of the union address, which is a week from today, you can look at the infrastructure he held here in new york. the white house announcing $1.2 billion for projects across the country, including a tunnel in new york. this is going to be a major theme on the economy in the president's speech. if you want to know what the president is thinking about the challenges facing him, i'm telling my colle

that's interesting given that the attorney general has named robert herr as his special son so for this probe. he's a former trump appointee. he served as the type aide to the ex president's deputy attorney general, rob rosenstein. what do you make of garland's pick and was naming a special counsel it, trump west point special counsel, the kirk decision? i feel it may be indirectly reinforces this notion that there are trump appointees and biden appointees, and given who the other appointee is, you will get a certain semblance of an investigation? >> well, i actually think it was a smart move by the attorney general to appoint robert hur in this because it takes away the immediate of reactions which is that this is another democrat coming in and brush it aside. though many people on the right are already attacking him, basically saying that he is not really a trump person, he is a deep state person. they're already going on the attack on this. i think your lead and was excellent and this, because so much we're missing in politics is any nuance, at all, in politics. it's either one thing

veteran prosecutor robert herr, formerly the u.s.ttorney for the state of maryland also appoteind by former president donald trump. >> this appointment underscores for the public the department's commitment to both independence and accountability. >> reporter: president biden on defense. >> why the material? next to your corvette? what were you thinking? >> let me -- i will get a chance to speak on all this, god willing, soon, but as i said earlier this week, and by the way, my corvette is in a locked garage, okay, so it's not like it's sitting out on the street. people know i take classified documents and classified materials seriously. i also said we're cooperating fully. >> reporter: the white house counsel's office saying the documents were inadvertently misplaced and that biden's team quickly responded to, quote, the mistake. biden's supporters were also quick to point out that the special counsel's investigation of trump's mishandling of classified documents is dramatically different. they say trump took hundreds of classified

. >> so the man garland appointed, robert herr, is the former republican appointed u.s. attorney for maryland, who before that served in a senior role in the justice departments. as you heard garland say, this decision was made to underscore doj's devotion to the facts and the law. so we'll look at the facts. take a step back to last year, when it was the twice-impeached disgraced ex-president's handling of classified documents under the microscope. merrick garland appointed special counsel jack smith to oversee that investigation in november, after many, many, many months of back and forth and obstruction between the trump team, the national archives, and ultimately the fbi and doj. according to the affidavit that the fbi used to gain a warrant from the courts for searching mar-a-lago, the national archives sent a criminal referral in february, indicating that 15 boxes of records were taken from mar-a-lago. the fbi launched a criminal investigation and found in those boxes were, quote, 184 unique documents bearing classification markings, including 67 documents marked a

meanwhile, special counsel robert herr released his own statement saying, i will conduct the assigned investigation with fair and partial and dispassionate judgment. i iend to follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly without fear or favor and will honor the trust placed in me to perform this service. more now on the appointment of a special counsel with white house press secretary karine jean-pierre. she was asked how classified materials wound up in president biden's office and delaware home and reactions to this week's disclearures. the documents were recovered in november, 2022, and the ones at his privates remain democratic were -- rede