The special counsel in the Biden Documents case is expected to issue a report soon

Robert K. Hur, the special counsel investigating President Biden's mishandling of documents he kept from his vice presidency, is expected to release his report soon, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

The impending release of the report suggests that Mr. Hur is nearing the end of an investigation that began just over a year ago.

It is expected to criticize Mr. Biden and his aides for shoddy record-keeping and storage, according to people close to Mr. Biden who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. But those people have long believed he will not be charged with any crime, judging by the lines of inquiry prosecutors have pursued in their interviews with witnesses and the president's cooperation with investigators.

Most of Mr. Hur's work was completed in the final days of 2023 and appears to have wrapped up after Mr. Biden sat down with investigators in October, those people said. He also conducted interviews with several longtime advisers in the Biden administration, including former chief of staff Ron Klain, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, and Steve Ricchetti, his counsel.

Former President Donald J. Trump, who was charged last summer with obstructing government efforts to recover classified materials at his Florida resort, is likely to use the report to downplay his own legal troubles — and claim that the Justice Department has targeted him politically while allowing Mr. Biden to escape punishment.

But Mr. Hur's investigation does not appear to be comparable in scope or severity to Mr. Trump's retention of sensitive government documents.

Mr. Biden's lawyers immediately notified the National Archives and Records Administration when they discovered a cache of classified documents in late 2022 as they closed a Washington office he occupied after leaving the vice presidency in 2017. They have since cooperated with the Justice Department, giving the FBI access to his home in Wilmington, Del., where they discovered more material.

Mr. Trump, by contrast, repeatedly resisted requests from the National Archives, which is responsible for storing sensitive White House documents, and initially gave only some of what he took with him when he left office in January 2021. He did not fully respond to a subpoena to return the rest and was eventually subjected to a search of his home and office by FBI agents with a warrant.

Last January, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed Mr. Hur, a veteran prosecutor who worked in the Trump administration, to investigate “the possible unauthorized disposal and retention of classified documents or other records discovered” after Mr. Biden had left the Obama administration.

With the exception of President Barack Obama, every occupant of the Oval Office since Watergate has had a special counsel scrutinize him or members of his staff, sometimes over relatively narrow issues, but sometimes over issues that threaten the threat of impeachment. formed.