Biden's team notified the White House, which notified the Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland. This is back in November, uh, assigned a U.S. attorney who had been a holdover from Trump's administration to look into the matter  and determine whether a special counsel would be necessary to investigate this further. When it comes to late breaking announcements about highly charged political investigations before the midterm elections, the Justice Department actually has policy about it. James Comey somewhat violated that when he made his announcement in 2016, a week before the Clinton election.