Biden scrutiny mounts after discovery of second batch of classified documents

Pressure is mounting on President Joe Biden over alleged Homeland Security-related lapses.

In a storage room in the garage of his home in Wilmington, Delaware, members of the president’s legal team found a second batch of classified documents from the period in which the current president served as vice president of Barack Obama, between 2009 and 2017. This was confirmed the White House on January 12. An additional document was found in a nearby room.

“Everything is going to become clear (…) People know that I take classified documents, classified information, seriously. I also said that we are fully cooperating with the investigation of the Department of Justice. As part of that process, my lawyers reviewed other places where other documents from my time as vice president could be stored and they finished that inspection last night. They discovered a small number of documents with classified marks in storage areas in my house, “Biden responded when reproached about it by a reporter from ‘Fox News’.

The level of confidentiality and the number of manuscripts have not yet been disclosed. However, this discovery raises doubts about the handling of confidential records by the head of state and many question why this information was not found in the National Archives.

The most recent discovery was reported on Wednesday, January 11, when the authorities had not yet revealed the exact place where it was found. However, the questions increased since it was released only 48 hours after advisers to the head of state announced that they found a first package of classified documents in the closet of an office at the Penn Biden Center.

It is a private institution for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington that the Democratic leader founded and held for about two years, after leaving the Vice Presidency and before launching his campaign to lead the White House.

“A small number of documents with confidentiality seals” were discovered while Biden’s personal lawyers were cleaning those offices, special counsel for the presidency, Richard Sauber, said on Monday, January 9.

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At that time, and during his visit to Mexico, Joe Biden declared that he was “surprised” by this finding. He indicated that his team has already made them available to the National Archives and that his team cooperates with the investigation that the Department of Justice opened in this regard.

Republicans lash out: “When is the FBI going to search Biden’s numerous homes?”

The voices of claims from the Republican Party have not been long in coming and several legislators claim to have access to the documents recently found by Biden’s lawyers to find out about their degree of confidentiality.

“The Office of the Director of National Intelligence should provide the Senate Intelligence Committee with all classified documents that were discovered in the garage of President Biden’s home in Delaware and an assessment of the risk to national security if those classified documents had been exposed. the public or a foreign adversary,” demanded lawmaker Marco Rubio.

In addition, Mark Warner, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Rubio, the Republican vice president of the same, asked the director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, for access to the records found, according to a Rubio spokesman.

Both also called for a “damage assessment” and a briefing on the retention of classified documents by both Biden and former President Trump, the same source added.

The request echoed another sent to Haines last Tuesday by Republican Rep. Mike Turner.

One of the big questions on the table is why the president’s team reported the first find until this week if they acknowledged that they were found on November 2. From the opposition they suggest that the wait could have been due to the proximity of the crucial midterm elections with which the Congress was renewed.

“They knew about this a week before the election, maybe the American people should have known (…) They certainly knew about the Mar-a-Lago raid 91 days before this election, but it would have been nice if on November 2 the country would have known that there were classified documents in the Biden Center,” claimed Congressman Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Donald Trump himself was quick to react. “When is the FBI going to raid Joe Biden’s many homes, maybe even the White House? These documents were definitely not declassified,” said the former president who seeks to return to the Presidency in the 2024 elections through his Truth Social network.

Are there similarities between the cases of Trump and Biden for the handling of classified documents?

The situation gives new ammunition to Republicans who are trying to establish an equivalence between this case and the Justice Department’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents by Donald Trump, who took classified documents when he left the Executive branch and were later found during a raid on his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

The magnifying glass is placed on the president with special attention, especially after he called his predecessor “irresponsible” for accumulating confidential documents on his property.

However, there are those who point out differences between the two cases. Biden’s team found and turned over the documents to the authorities, unlike the documents held by the former president, since their recovery required the intervention of the Department of Justice.

Trump stored thousands of government records, some hundreds of which were marked as classified, inside his personal Florida residence for more than a year after leaving the White House and did not immediately or voluntarily return them despite numerous requests. requests from the National Archives.

Still, the new discoveries represent legal and political headaches for Biden as the Democratic Party prepares for a long-awaited contest in which they hope to reoccupy the White House after the 2024 election.

With Reuters, AP and local media