Meet the Five Key Players in the Biden Document Controversy

As the scandal over President Biden’s handling of classified documents drags on, the names of some previously unknown names have been brought into the light. 

Some lawyers and spokespeople who would have remained largely unknown to the general public are being thrust into the forefront as new information about documents from Biden’s time in the Obama White House were found at one of his former offices and at his Delaware home.

Here are some of the most key players in the Biden document scandal.

Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, has become one prominent figure as the White House lawyer who has been tasked with the duty of disclosing new discoveries and handling the bulk of the administration’s response to the public about the documents found, which date 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. He was expected to assist in addressing GOP-led investigations after it was projected that Republicans would win a majority of Congress. He has now become associated with the documents case as he has written most of the statements which reveal discoveries. 

Sauber was partially responsible for turning over a batch of documents found in Biden’s home earlier this month after lawyers who initially found a classified document in Biden’s home on Jan. 11 did not have security clearance to view it. Sauber had the requisite clearance and went to Biden’s home on Jan. 12 to transfer the documents to the Justice Department.

Another major player, Bob Bauer, is Biden’s personal attorney and has been working with the White House counsel’s office to handle the legal fallout of the scandal.

In the last two weeks, Bauer has become more involved in the public response, and has issued statements to clarify details and explain specifics about the Justice Department search of Biden’s home that took place 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 both that statement and one on Jan. 18 sought to explain why the White House hid much of the information about the searches from the public. 

Bauer has close ties to Biden’s orbit and Democratic politics. He is married to Anita Dunn, a top White House adviser who has known the president for years. Bauer has also 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 is the White House spokesman and has become the face of the Biden administration’s response to the discoveries, making regular television appearances to defend the president and holding calls with reporters who are becoming increasingly critical of the lack of transparency.  

Sams was a spokesman for Vice President Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign, joining the administration as a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services on the pandemic response. He was brought into the White House last year to handle the public response to possible GOP congressional investigations. 

While press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has faced a near-constant barrage of questions about transparency and whether she was providing incomplete information, Sams has stepped in to become the White House’s point man on the issue.

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

Thus far, Stuart Delery has taken a backseat publicly to Sauber and Bauer, but the lawyer is expected to be at the forefront behind the scenes in responding to Republican inquiries on the scandal.

Delery, who oversees legal operations in his role as White House counsel, has handled communications thus far with House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who has been involved in multiple 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.”

Delery will be largely responsible for determining whether the White House cooperates with Republican investigations into the president or if they take a firm stance and refuse to indulge probes they view as politically motivated. 

Delery had previously served as previous White House Counsel Dana Remus’ deputy counsel and spent several years working at the Justice Department. He is the first openly gay person to serve as White House counsel.

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

Hur’s appointment was designed to promote independence as the Justice Department determines 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 was confirmed the following year. He resigned from that post in early 2021. 

In spite of the fact that he is a former Trump appointee, he has attracted some skepticism from conservatives who are concerned with his previous work with FBI Director Christopher Wray and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was involved in the Mueller investigation into Trump’s ties with Russia, which Hur was also involved in.