5 key players in the Biden document controversy

The controversy over President Biden’s handling of classified documents has pushed some previously lesser-known names into the forefront.

Lawyers and spokespeople who otherwise would have remained largely unknown to the broader public are quickly becoming prominent figures as new information is released about documents from Biden’s time as vice president and as a senator that were found at a former office and his Delaware home.

Here are five key players to know.

Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president

Richard Sauber has emerged as the White House lawyer tasked with disclosing in statements new discoveries and handling the bulk of the administration’s responses to the public about the documents found dating back to Biden’s time as vice president.

Sauber joined the White House last summer with the title of special counsel to the president after serving as the top lawyer at the Department of Veterans Affairs. While he was expected to lend a hand in addressing GOP-led investigations under the expectation that Republicans would win a majority in Congress, he has now become closely associated with the document case via written statements by Sauber.

Sauber himself played a role in turning over a batch of documents found at Biden home earlier this month.

In a Jan. 14 statement, Sauber said lawyers who initially found a classified document in Biden’s home three days earlier did not have a security clearance. Sauber does have one, though, and he went to Biden’s home on Jan. 12 to facilitate the transfer of documents to the Justice Department.

Bob Bauer, personal attorney to Biden

Bob Bauer is Biden’s personal attorney, dividing labor with the White House counsel’s office in handling the legal fallout of the document case.

Bauer has become more involved in the public response in the last two weeks, issuing statements to clarify key details and explain specifics about the Justice Department search that took place at Biden’s residence last week.

His first statement on Jan. 14 included a timeline of events laying out when and where classified materials were found and when the Justice Department was notified, and his statement from that day and on Jan. 18 sought to explain why the White House was limited in its public disclosures about the searches.

Bauer has close ties to Biden’s orbit and Democratic politics. His wife is Anita Dunn, a top White House adviser who has known the president for years. Bauer previously served as an attorney for the Biden campaign, standing in for former President Trump during debates and leading efforts to fend off election challenges after the vote in 2020.

Ian Sams, White House spokesman

Ian Sams has become the public face of the Biden administration’s response to the classified document discoveries, making regular television appearances to defend the president and holding calls with reporters as some mount criticism over a lack of transparency with the public.

Sams previously worked as a spokesperson for Vice President Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign, and he joined the administration as a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services on the pandemic response. He was brought into the White House press shop last year to handle the public response to potential GOP congressional investigations.

In recent weeks, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre facing a constant barrage of questions in the briefing room about transparency and whether she was providing incomplete information, Sams has stepped in as the White House’s point person on the issue.

After the White House disclosed Saturday that Justice Department officials searched Biden’s home and found more classified materials, Sams appeared multiple times on MSNBC over the next 72 hours and held an off-camera, on-the-record briefing with reporters to articulate the administration’s position and field questions.

Stuart Delery, White House counsel

Stuart Delery is the White House lawyer who has so far taken a backseat publicly to Sauber and Bauer, but he is expected to play an active role behind the scenes in responding to Republican inquiries on the matter.

Delery, who as White House counsel oversees legal operations, has handled communications thus far with House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who is just digging into investigations into Biden.

In a Monday letter to Comer, Delery wrote that the White House did not have the classified materials taken from Biden’s home and his old office, but pledged to work to accommodate “legitimate oversight interests.”

It will fall largely to Delery in the coming weeks and months to navigate whether the White House cooperates with Republican investigations into Biden, or if the administration takes a firmer line in refusing to indulge probes it views as politically motivated.

Delery started on the job in June, replacing Dana Remus. Delery had previously served as Remus’s deputy counsel and spent several years working at the Justice Department. He is the first openly gay person to serve as White House counsel.

Robert Hur, DOJ special counsel

Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this month appointed Robert Hur to serve as the special counsel reviewing Biden’s handling of classified materials.

The appointment of Hur was designed to promote independence as the Justice Department assesses whether there was any wrongdoing in how classified materials ended up in places Biden used after his tenure as vice president.

Hur, a Harvard and Stanford graduate, was nominated in 2017 by then-President Trump to serve as U.S. attorney for Maryland and confirmed the following year. He resigned from the post in early 2021. 

Despite being a former Trump appointee, Hur has attracted skepticism from some conservatives who are bothered by his past work with FBI Director Christopher Wray and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The latter involved work with the Mueller investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia.

Hur is the second special counsel Garland has appointed in just three months, following the appointment of Jack Smith to oversee investigations into Trump, including whether he mishandled classified documents upon leaving office.