MSNBC's Chuck Rosenberg praised the federal prosecutor tapped to investigate President Joe Biden's handling of classified materials, but he cast doubt on the need for a special counsel to lead the probe.
Attorney general Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur, who served as assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland during Donald Trump's administration, to investigate classified materials found at Biden's private residence, and Rosenberg questioned the Department of Justice's decision.
"I know Rob Hur, he's a wonderful guy," said Rosenberg, who previously served as U.S. attorney for Virginia and as a senior FBI official. "This is in no way to impugn his integrity. He's smart, honest, fair, a terrific prosecutor. That aside, I think the Department of Justice can do both of these investigations with the men and women who have worked there for years and with integrity, and by the way, the special counsel regulations in place now, and they have been in place for more than 20 years, don't afford the attorney general, right, the independence he may have been hoping for. He is still the ultimate decision maker with respect to any recommendation from either special counsel. It still stops on his desk, and so two primary reasons the Department of Justice can do complex sensitive investigations with integrity, and the attorney general remains in charge, as he would in any case, and so I don't see the appointments as necessary."
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"I see the investigations as necessary," he added, "but not through the appointment of a special counsel."
Rosenberg contrasted the Biden probe to the ongoing investigation of Trump's handling of top-secret government materials, and he said both situations were worthy of a criminal investigation but were otherwise different circumstances.
"The attorney general has to determine that a criminal investigation is warranted, and I believe a criminal investigation is warranted in both cases," Rosenberg said. "It doesn't mean necessarily that anyone will be prosecuted, but a criminal investigation is warranted. Threshold No. 1, and then in these cases, both of them, the attorney general determined that there were extraordinary circumstances that required the appointment of a special counsel in place of the normal mechanisms at the Department of Justice. I understand that the circumstances are unusual, but, again, I think the Department of Justice can handle these investigations in normal channels."
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