WATCH: AG Garland And FBI Chief Wray Peppered With Questions About Biden-Trump-Pence Classified Docs Cases

Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray were peppered with questions about the President Joe Biden-former President Donald Trump-ex-VP Mike Pence classified documents cases during an unrelated press conference.

Amid three roiling cases of classified documents being found in private spaces, reporters have become accustomed to having nearly all of their questions referred to Senior Advisor to White House Counsel’s Office Ian Sams, who has briefed reporters twice so far — or to the Justice Department, which rarely answers questions about ongoing investigations.

On Thursday morning, the Justice Department held a press conference to announce the FBI’s seizure of the servers belonging to the ransomware group “Hive.”

But several reporters took a crack at asking Wray and Garland about the documents issues, and got a few broad, less-than-specific answers:

REPORTER: In light of the revelations of former president and current president and former vice president having classified documents. Is the Justice Department urging other former White House officials or high ranking intelligence officials to go back protectively to review their own files just out of precaution to see if they may accidentally have retained any material?

AG GARLAND: So I’m not going to be able to talk about the latter question. On the former question. I’ll give a start and then I’ll turn it over to the director.

…

REPORTER: I just wanted to ask you, with regard to the Trump and Biden special counsels, are you considering an effort to coordinate the work of these two special counsels, such as maybe their their timeline or their final reports so the public can have somewhat of an apples to apples comparison at the end of this? Or do you view that as interference in the special counsel’s work?

AG GARLAND: Well, I don’t want to talk about the particulars of investigations, and particularly not a special counsel investigation. Say, as a general matter, the people we choose for special counsel are experienced prosecutors with experience in the Justice Department. They know how the Justice Department works. They know what the department’s practices are. And I’m fully confident that they will resolve these matters one way or the other in the highest traditions of the department.

…

REPORTER: As somebody who deals with classified information every day without asking you to comment on any any pending matter, are you concerned that the system for accounting for classified information in the executive branch may be broken?

DIRECTOR WRAY: On the second question, obviously I can’t comment on any specific investigation, but we have had for quite a number of years any number of mishandling investigations. That is unfortunately a regular part of our counterintelligence division’s and counter-intelligence program’s work and people need to be conscious of the rules regarding classified information and appropriate handling of that. Those rules are there for a reason.

The reporters then sat silently as Garland, Wray, and the other officials present exited the podium.

Watch above via C-SPAN.

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