Welcome to The Beat. I'm Ari Melbourne. We start with breaking news, a legal first for President Biden.

Attorney General Merrick Garland upending Washington today with this surprise announcement.

He is appointing a new special counsel to probe the handling of classified documents found in Joe Biden's office in home.

This is a significant legal development,

no matter what happens from here. It's also the kind of twist that would have seemed like a

movie plot even just a few months ago when former President Trump was clashing with the DOJ

over his handling and alleged mishandling of classified material. It would have felt like a twist even honestly the last couple weeks when Biden's team was

very optimistic after the midterms and then the GOP's chaotic start to the new Congress.

Now Garland did not preview any plans on this at all.

He just announced that he would deliver remarks today. Didn't even reveal the topic and then said

the words that tend to rattle any White House regardless of the era or the party.

Based on Mr. Laoshe's initial investigation, I concluded that under the special counsel regulations,

it was in the public interest to appoint a special

counsel.

There you have it.

Today's announcement came after this ongoing review did spill into the press, raising

questions about whether the DOJ or Garland are somehow potentially responding to events other

than the substance of the law itself and the facts unearthed in the probe.

Because again, we've learned that some of this has already been going on, but this announcement

came today after the rest of it spilled into the public view. And there are reports that also

have pushed the White House to state that more documents were found in a locked garage at Biden's

Delaware home.

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