Joe Biden Monday refused to answer questions about classified documents discovered at an office where he worked before becoming President.
The announcement has put the National Archives, Democrats and media outlets in an awkward position six months after President Trump’s home was raided to retrieve documents stored there.
In this instance, media reports on Tuesday said the Biden documents include some of the most highly classified markings in government.
The classified documents were discovered at the Penn Biden Center, Richard Sauber, the lawyer, told news outlets in a statement. Whereas Mar-A-Lago had secret service protection and documents were kept in a secure room, the Penn Center had no such protection, according to news reports.
More concerningly, say observers, the documents were discovered on Nov. 2, 2022 just days before the midterm election but kept secret by the Biden administration and the National Archives until Jan. 9, 2023 when Sauber revealed their existence.
White House lawyers alerted the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on the day of the discovery and NARA took possession of the materials the following morning, Sauber contends.
The Penn Biden Center is a set of offices in Washington. It is part of the University of Pennsylvania. Biden was given an appointment at the center after the Trump administration took office until Biden started campaigning for the 2020 election.
The Penn Biden Center, NARA, the FBI, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An automated message from the number the Department of Justice lists for media queries directed reporters to submit emails, and an email was not returned.
“Since that discovery, the President’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives,” Sauber said.
Materials with classified markings were found at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, leading to FBI agents executing a search warrant at the rest in the fall of 2022.
Democrats and officials with the Biden administration Trump violated multiple laws, including one governing the handling of defense materials.
Trump has said he declassified the materials before he left office, which under Federal Codes a president has the power to do. Biden, as Vice President under Obama, had no similar authority.
Trump has not been charged as of yet and the discovery of the Biden documents could make that less likely.
Biden previously criticized Trump for holding records with classified markings.
“How that could possibly happen? How anyone could be that irresponsible … totally irresponsible,” Biden said in a “60 Minutes” interview shortly after the FBI raid.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., says Democrats “overplayed their hand” in the handling of the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago in light of new revelations of classified documents taken by now-President Joe Biden after his time as vice president nearly six years ago.
“I think from … the same point that the Dems overplayed their hand on the Mar-a-Lago … just a proof of that,” McCarthy responded Monday evening to a reporter’s question about the reports that Biden took a batch of records from Biden’s time as vice president.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, pointed to the remarks.
“Under the Biden Administration, the Department of Justice and National Archives have made compliance with the Presidential Records Act a top priority,” Comer said in a statement. “We expect the same treatment for President Biden.”
“Biden stole classified documents and stored them at his think tank while he was VP. The VP does not have any authority to declassify classified documents,” added Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.).
Republicans hold a majority in the House after a successful midterm election. That means the party has the ability to issue subpoenas and other powers only the majority enjoys.
For his part, Trump is pointing out the hypocrisy of how he was treated verses how Biden was treated in relation to documents.
“When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House? These documents were definitely not declassified,” Trump wrote.
–Wire services