XPost: alt.sodomites.barack-obama, talk.politics.guns, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh XPost: talk.politics.misc
Follow for the latest on the discovery of the second batch of classified documents from Biden’s vice presidency.
WASHINGTON — President Biden’s aides have found a new batch of classified documents at a second location associated with Mr. Biden, a person
familiar with the situation said on Wednesday. It was the second such disclosure in three days, and it was sure to intensify Republican attacks.
Republicans reveled in the new disclosures, accusing Mr. Biden of
hypocrisy in calling former President Donald J. Trump irresponsible for hoarding sensitive documents at his private club and residence in Florida.
This week, the new Republican chairman of the House oversight committee
issued a far-ranging request to the National Archives and Records Administration, which is supposed to receive all highly sensitive
materials after an administration leaves office, for documents and correspondence.
It is not clear where or when the records were recovered. But Mr. Biden’s
aides have scoured various places since November, when his lawyers
discovered a handful of classified files, including briefing materials on foreign countries, as they closed a think tank office in Washington. The Justice Department is reviewing the discovery to determine how to proceed.
A White House spokesman and a member of Mr. Biden’s legal team did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.
On Tuesday, Mr. Biden told reporters in Mexico City that he was
“surprised” to learn in the fall that his lawyers found classified
government documents in his former office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.
He said his staff had fully cooperated with the National Archives and the Justice Department.
A day later, NBC News reported that another cache had been found at a different, undisclosed location.
Understand the Biden Documents Case
The discovery of classified documents from President Biden’s time as vice president has prompted a Justice Department investigation.
In Washington: Attorney General Merrick B. Garland’s appointment of a
special counsel to investigate the situation drew a mixed reception from Republicans, who had hoped to spearhead the effort themselves.
Biden’s Miscalculations: How has Mr. Biden handled the document
discoveries, and why was the public in the dark for so long? Michael D.
Shear, a White House correspondent for The Times, joined “The Daily” to
discuss the ordeal.
Implications for Trump Case: Despite the differences between them, the
cases involving the president and his predecessor are similar enough that investigators may have a harder time prosecuting Mr. Trump criminally. Democrats’ Reaction: Mr. Biden is facing blowback from some members of his
own party, as his allies express growing concern that the case could get
in the way of the Democrats’ momentum coming out of the midterms.
Under government regulations, access to classified documents is limited to people who are currently authorized to see them and the materials must be stored in special security containers to limit the risk of exposing
sensitive information. The Presidential Records Act says official
documents in the White House — classified and unclassified alike — should
be turned over to the National Archives when an administration departs.
After Mr. Trump left office, officials with the archives identified
sensitive documents that had not been recovered, prompting numerous
appeals for their return. The matter was eventually referred to the
Justice Department, which conducted a court-approved search of Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and turned up classified materials, including some
bearing the most restrictive top secret markings.
By contrast, the first set of documents found by Mr. Biden’s lawyers was voluntarily returned to the archives in November, and had not been logged
as missing. It is not clear if the archives had flagged the new materials.
A spokesman for the archives declined to comment.
The discovery of the second batch raises new questions about the handling
of sensitive documents by a Biden team that has prided itself for adhering
to norms and rules flouted by his predecessor.
How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or
giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.
Learn more about our process.
But the circumstances of the two cases appear strikingly different. Unlike
Mr. Trump, who resisted returning the records stored at Mar-a-Lago and
failed to fully comply with a subpoena, Mr. Biden’s team appears to have
acted swiftly and in accordance with the law, immediately summoning
officials with the National Archives to retrieve the files. The archives
then alerted the Justice Department, according to the White House.
“After I was briefed about the discovery, I was surprised to learn that
there are any government records that were taken to that office,” Mr.
Biden said in Mexico.
“But I don’t know what’s in the documents,” he added.
On Wednesday, the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, refused
to address the issue, saying it would be inappropriate to comment on a
matter under review by the Justice Department.
She also declined to provide details of searches undertaken by Mr. Biden’s legal team after the first batch of files was discovered and did not
respond when asked about the possibility that other sensitive materials
dating to the Obama era were stored at other Biden-related locations.
“I’m not going to go beyond what the president shared yesterday,” she
said. “I’m not going to go beyond what my colleagues at the White House
counsel shared with all of you as well.”
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, whose time in office has been largely defined by two criminal investigations involving Mr. Trump, assigned the preliminary phase of the Biden inquiry to John R. Lausch Jr., the U.S.
attorney in Chicago, a Trump appointee.
But the inevitable comparison of the Trump documents case with the Biden
matter has put new pressure on Mr. Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate Mr. Biden’s handling of government files. In November, days
after Mr. Trump announced his third bid for the presidency, Mr. Garland assigned a special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee the investigation into
Mr. Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack, and the inquiry into whether he illegally kept classified materials at Mar-a-Lago.
Mr. Lausch’s review is aimed at helping Mr. Garland decide whether to
appoint a special counsel, which appears increasingly likely, according to people familiar with the situation.
Mr. Garland has been briefed on the inquiry, according to a person
familiar with the situation, though it is unclear if he has made a
decision.
If the legal implications of this week’s revelations remain unclear, the political implications are more obvious.
Republicans, eager to move on from the rancor of their recent House
leadership fight, hope to spin the Biden matter into an attack that
sustains a protracted congressional investigation that damages Mr. Biden
and blunts the effects of Mr. Trump’s troubles on the party.
On Tuesday, Representative James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, the
chairman of the House oversight committee, asked the archives and the
White House Counsel’s Office for correspondence about Mr. Biden’s “failure
to return highly classified records from his time as vice president.”
On Wednesday, he took another step in keeping with his promise to hold the Biden administration accountable for what Republicans describe as
politicizing federal agencies: pressing the Treasury Department for
information about Mr. Biden’s family finances.
Republicans reveled in Wednesday’s disclosure.
“It’s clear that Biden’s staff have no idea how many classified documents
are in Biden’s former offices and are desperately looking for them,” Tommy Pigott, the rapid response director of the Republican National Committee,
wrote in an email.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/us/politics/biden-classified-
documents.html
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)