After it was discovered that Joe Biden, like Trump, was found to have retained confidential materials after leaving office, a former adviser to Donald Trump urged that a special counsel should look into how Biden handled sensitive information.
On November 2, papers belonging to Biden—ten folders with unknown contents—were discovered at his think tank’s office in Washington, DC. The Justice Department said on Monday that the papers had been given over and an inquiry had begun, but the president claimed he was ignorant of their existence before then.
At his Mar-a-Lago residence, Trump’s papers, which contained around 300 pages labeled as such, were discovered in January 2022. Justice Department and National Archives and Records Administration representatives had been negotiating a handover with Trump’s team for months, but the negotiations broke down. In August, the DoJ took the rare step of conducting a raid at Mar-a-Lago to take the documents.
Special counsel Jack Smith was appointed on November 18 to look into the controversy surrounding the Mar-a-Lago sensitive materials; now, Trump backers are asking that Biden get the same investigation.
Trump’s senior adviser Stephen Miller tweeted, “Special Counsel. Now.”
Others demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland immediately begin a probe into Biden’s activities.
Trying to rig the 2020 election, Jenna Ellis, a member of Trump’s legal team, tweeted: “Biden’s DOJ is evaluating Biden’s confidential docs?” Perhaps we need to think about a specific master.
Former British prime minister David Cameron’s adviser, podcaster Steve Hilton, said that Biden’s actions were worse than those of Trump.
Vice presidents, unlike presidents, are not permitted to declassify records, albeit he did not explain why.
He said that Joe Biden’s theft of sensitive data was “certainly worse than anything Trump has been accused of.”
We’ll know that Equal Justice Under Law has been destroyed by hyperpartisan Democrats if Merrick Garland doesn’t pursue Biden with at least as much vigor as he is chasing Trump.
Others, though, believed that Trump had committed a more severe crime than Biden by keeping sensitive information at Mar-a-Lago.
Former Barack Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer tweeted: “Team Biden uncovered the records, contacted the archives right away, and returned them.”
Trump and his attorneys fooled authorities on several occasions and took every precaution to avoid handing them over.
These are different from one another.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance concurred.
Big distinctions between this and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago issue, she said. They were discovered in an office atmosphere rather than in Biden’s house.
The Biden team quickly offered the Archives the news of the finding and gave them over. Compare apples with oranges.
The New York Times said that the probe may result in the appointment of a special counsel.
In the instance of Trump, the Justice Department was informed in January 2022 that there were secret papers present at Mar-a-Lago. After considerable back and forth over the delivery of the files, the special counsel was finally chosen ten months later.
If a special counsel will be appointed to look into Biden as well, it is still unknown two months after the Justice Department learned about his secret papers.
The 10 files’ contents, location, and whether Biden was aware of their existence are all still unknown.
Some top-secret files with the classification “sensitive compartmented information,” or SCI, which is used for very sensitive information gathered from intelligence sources, were included in the classified documents.
Regarding the announcement of the probe, Biden has not yet made any remarks.
During a meeting with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday in Mexico City, he declined to respond to shouted questions about how the papers got into the offices.
The White House is collaborating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice about the discovery of what seem to be Obama-Biden administration papers, including a limited number of documents with secret markings, the White House special counsel said in a statement on Monday.
Six days before to the midterms in November, the papers were discovered.
The Oversight Committee’s current chairman, Republican James Comer, said late on Monday that he will write to the White House and National Archives to request information.
The announcement was posted by the House Judiciary GOP along with alert sirens.
Trump took the lead in the outcry on Monday.
When will the FBI search Joe Biden’s several residences, possibly even the White House? He said on social media that “these materials were obviously not declassified.”
When a search of Biden’s residence would take place, Donald Trump Jr.
When will the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team raid one of Vice President Biden’s several vacation properties, which were purchased and paid for in some manner by a career of being a modest public servant? asked Donald Jr.
Former White House physician turned Texas congressman Ronny Jackson described the news as “amazing.”
He tweeted, “It’s just come to light that Biden had HIGHLY CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS inappropriately kept in one of his private offices.”
‘INCREDIBLE! THE FBI IS WHERE? WHAT PLACE IS THE SCARY RAID? In our nation, there are two separate judicial systems: one for them and one for us.
“They just disclosed Joe Biden unlawfully retained confidential materials from his vice-presidency in his hands,” claimed conservative radio presenter Clay Travis.
I’m old enough to recall hearing in the news that this was not conceivable. That Trump indictment is a total failure. This narrative is finished between Hillary and Biden right now.
Biden “stole” the records, according to Arizona congressman Andy Biggs, who also cited a New York Post article from April pointing out that the University of Pennsylvania, which houses the Biden institute, received funding from China.
When Biden was vice president, he took sensitive materials and kept them at his think tank. The VP lacks the power to declassify sensitive information.
And the CCP provided $54 million in financing to this “think group.”
According to the article, the records were discovered as Biden’s lawyers were closing up shop.
The data were allegedly in a box with other unclassified materials inside a locked closet in a folder.
According to the CBS story, Biden is ignorant of the papers’ contents, and it will now be investigated how they arrived at the office one mile from the White House.
All presidential and vice-presidential records must be transferred to the National Archives at the conclusion of the term in order for them to be safely stored, according to the Presidential Records Act.
The White House Counsel’s office subsequently informed the National Archives of the finding, and on November 3 the National Archives seized control of the records.
The Northern District of Illinois’ U.S. Attorney, John Lausch, will now decide what to do next, including whether to launch a further investigation or retain a special prosecutor.
Lausch is one of the two U.S. attorneys whom Trump has proposed.
The investigation of Hunter Biden is being led by the other, Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss.
John Lausch, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, will now decide what to do next, including whether to launch a further investigation or hire a special prosecutor. Lausch is one of the two U.S. attorneys whom Trump has proposed. The inquiry of Hunter Biden is being led by David Weiss, a US Attorney from Delaware.
The president’s special counsel, Richard Sauber, told CBS that the materials had never been the focus of a prior request or investigation by the Archives.
“Since that finding, the President’s personal lawyers have worked with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to verify that any materials from the Obama-Biden Administration are properly in the Archives’ custody,” the White House said.
On 60 Minutes in September, Biden was questioned about the photograph of papers found at Mar-a-Lago after the FBI search in August.
“How is that even possible? I don’t see how somebody could be that careless, the president continued. Furthermore, it is completely irresponsible.
From Trump’s Palm Beach property, more than 300 top-secret papers were found.
From 2017 until he made his 2019 presidential campaign announcement, Biden worked out of the Washington, D.C., office.
It was once the residence of his closest advisers and cabinet members.
While senior White House adviser Steve Richetti served as managing director in 2019, Blinken served as the center’s managing director in 2018.
As a result of being selected as a Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor in 2017, Biden is now on leave from the University of Pennsylvania.
According to CBS, he has received $917,643 in compensation for speaking and running the center.
His late son Beau, daughter Ashley, and granddaughter Naomi all earned degrees there, and his granddaughter Natalie is a first-year student.
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