The new year does not start auspiciously for the White House. Two days after an initial disclosure, Joe Biden’s aides discovered another batch of classified documents at a presidential residence, according to a statement from a White House legal adviserThursday, January 12, confirms information from American media, including NBC News and New York Times.
After a first such discovery in November at a former office of Joe Biden, the president’s lawyers conducted an extensive search of his residences in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach (Delaware). It is in this context that this second series of documents was found. Most were there “garage storage space” from the Wilmington house, the affidavit said, with only one other item, a page long, discovered among other documents in an adjacent room.
No documents were found at the Rehoboth Beach residence. As for the first discoveries, the documents were handed over to the Ministry of Justice, clarifies the press release, which also recalls that “The White House will continue to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation”. This second study concludes the research.
“I was surprised,” says Joe Biden
In November, Mr Biden’s lawyers had found confidential documents – including briefing notes on foreign countries, according to New York Times – in one of the offices he sometimes used as a workplace. These documents, like those found in his residence, date from when Joe Biden was Barack Obama’s vice president (2009-2017).
According to government regulations, access to classified documents is limited to accredited individuals and items must be kept in secure cabinets. According to the Presidential Records Act, official documents, classified or not, must also be deposited in the National Archives after the departure of an administration.
The Democratic president’s administration had so far confirmed that a “small number of documents classified as confidential” – about ten – were found in one “locked cabinet” at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank where Joe Biden once had an office. “I was surprised to hear that documents relating to the government had been taken from this office. But I do not know what is in the documents”., the president had declared to the press on Tuesday on the sidelines of a summit with the Mexican president and the prime minister of Canada in Mexico City. Thursday, Joe Biden assured during a brief exchange with the press, “cooperate fully” with American justice.
Unlike Trump, Biden’s team returned the documents
On Tuesday, CBS announced that Attorney General Merrick Garland had appointed a judge to investigate the first documents discovered at the Penn Biden Center. With this new twist, the case should still make noise and could serve as an argument for the Republican camp, while justice also investigates the numerous documents that former President Donald Trump kept in his Florida residence after his departure from the White House in 2021.
So far, the billionaire’s case is considered more serious, as the federal police (FBI) during a spectacular search seized thousands of documents, including a hundred secret secret defenses, which the Republican refused to return. But the latest revelations remain embarrassing for the Democratic president, who has long made his ethics claims unlike his predecessor.
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Commentators say they could also introduce delicate political considerations into the investigation of Donald Trump, who immediately called for Joe Biden to receive the same attention. “When will the FBI raid Joe Biden’s many residences, or even the White House?” he responded. Republicans are calling for the creation of a “special advice” to investigate the Democratic president. On TwitterSen. Josh Hawley shared the NBC News article, with just the mention “special advice”.
“Congress must investigate this matter”Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy told the press Thursday, condemning “another misstep by the Biden administration”. Although the scope of the documents held by President Biden varies, the embarrassment was palpable among Democrats Thursday and did not escape their opposition. “Remember how the left reacted when President Trump brought home so-called ‘confidential’ documents? She’s awfully quiet today.”commented House Republican-elect Jim Jordan, a loyal lieutenant of Donald Trump.
The White House maintains that if mistakes were made, the administration at least corrected them immediately. As soon as the first documents were found, at the end of November, lawyers returned them to the National Archives, which administers this type of case, she defended herself. To refute allegations of political interference, the attorney general assigned the case to a Chicago prosecutor appointed under the Trump administration. The secrecy of the investigation was cited by White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre to justify her refusal to answer questions from reporters on the subject on Wednesday. Which wasn’t enough to stop them. “We will be limited in what we can say here”she let go.
The Minister of Justice must make one “announcement” in front of the press at 1:15 p.m. (7:15 p.m. in Paris), according to a press release from his services that did not provide further details.