Biden says there’s no request for an interview by special counsel in documents case

President Biden on Friday told reporters there has been no request for him to be interviewed by the special counsel looking into his handling of classified documents.

“There’s no such request and no such interest,” told reporters in Lake Tahoe, where he has spent the past week vacationing.

NBC News reported earlier in August that attorneys for Biden were in talks with the special counsel’s team about terms for a possible interview, though neither the White House nor Biden’s lawyers ever publicly confirmed such negotiations.

Attorney General Merrick Garland in January appointed Robert Hur as a special counsel to investigate after documents from Biden’s time as vice president with classified markings were found at his Wilmington, Del., home, and at a University of Pennsylvania office in Washington, D.C., that he used after the end of the Obama administration.

Biden has maintained he did nothing wrong, and his team has noted that his lawyers notified and cooperated with the Justice Department after discovering the documents, while Trump resisted turning over the classified materials he kept after leaving office.

A separate special counsel had already been appointed to oversee the investigation into former President Trump’s mishandling of records after roughly 300 records bearing classified markings were discovered at his Mar-a-Lago residence. Trump has since been charged by the Justice Department over his retention of those documents.