Joe Biden ‘surprised’ government documents found in his old office

WASHINGTON: WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was surprised when he was told that government documents were found by his lawyers in his former office in Washington. He was asked about the issue after the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee requested that US intelligence services conduct a “damage assessment” of potentially classified documents.
Speaking to reporters in Mexico City, Biden said his lawyers “did what they should have done” when they immediately called the National Archives about the find at the offices of the Penn Biden Center. He retained an office there after leaving the vice presidency in 2017 until shortly before the launch of his presidential campaign in 2019.
The White House confirmed that the Justice Department was reviewing “a small number of documents with classified marks” found at the office.
“I was made aware of this discovery and surprised to learn that there are government documents that have been brought over there to this office,” Biden said in his first comments since news broke Nov. 2, 2022, the discovery of documents emerged on Monday. He added that “I don’t know what’s in the documents” and that his lawyers had suggested he not ask.
Earlier Tuesday, Rep. Mike Turner sent the request to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, saying Biden’s retention of the documents put him in “potential violation of laws protecting national security, including the Espionage and the Presidential Records Act.
Regardless of a federal review, the revelation that Biden potentially mishandled classified or presidential records could prove to be a political headache for the president, who has called out former President Donald AssetThe decision to keep hundreds of such records in his private club in Florida is “irresponsible. ”
“Those with access to classified information have a duty and obligation to protect it,” Turner said in a letter to Haines. “This issue requires full and thorough consideration.”
On Tuesday, Rep. James Comer, the new GOP chairman of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to the White House attorney’s office requesting copies of documents found in Biden’s office, communications about the discovery and a list of those who may have had access to the office where they were found. The White House did not immediately respond to the request.
Haines agreed in September to conduct a “risk assessment” rather than a “damage assessment” of the Trump case.
There are significant differences between the Trump and Biden situations, including the seriousness of an ongoing grand jury investigation into the Mar-a-Lago question. The Trump Documents Intelligence Risk Assessment involves reviewing the documents seized for classification as well as “the potential national security risk that would result from the disclosure of the relevant documents.”
Senator Mark Warner, Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for a briefing on the documents.
“Our classification system exists to protect our most important national security secrets, and we expect to be briefed on what happened at both Mar-a-Lago and Biden’s office as part of our constitutional oversight obligations,” he said. “From what we know so far, the latter is about finding documents with marks and turning them over, which is certainly different from a months-long effort to preserve material actively sought by the government. But again, that’s why we need to be informed.”
The President’s special counsel Richard Sauber said Monday that after Biden’s lawyers found the documents, they notified the National Archives and Records Administration – which took custody of the documents the next day.
“Since this discovery, the president’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that all Obama-Biden administration records are properly in the possession of the Archives,” Sauber said.
A person familiar with the case but not authorized to discuss it publicly said Attorney General Merrick Garland asked U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch to review the case after the Archives referred the question to the department. Lausch is one of the few American lawyers to have been removed from the Trump administration.
Trump weighed in on his social media site on Monday, asking, “When will the FBI raid Joe Biden’s many homes, possibly even the White House?”
Republicans have just taken control of the House of Representatives and promise to launch sweeping investigations into the Biden administration.
The revelation may also complicate the Justice Department’s review of whether to bring charges against Trump, who is trying to win back the White House in 2024 and has repeatedly claimed that the department’s investigation into his own conduct amounted to “corruption”.
The National Archives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. Spokespersons for Garland and Lausch declined to comment.
Comer also sent a letter to the National Archives requesting documents and correspondence relating to the discovery of the Biden documents, saying that “NARA’s inconsistent treatment regarding the recovery of classified documents held by former President Trump and President Biden raises questions about the agency’s political biases.”
His Democratic counterpart, Rep. Jamie Raskin, said Biden’s attorneys “appear to have taken immediate and appropriate action.”
“I am satisfied that the Attorney General has taken appropriate steps to ensure a careful review of the circumstances surrounding the possession and discovery of these documents and to make an impartial decision on any further action that may be necessary,” he added. .
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, said Monday the American public deserves to know about classified documents sooner.
“They knew about this a week before the election, maybe the American people should have known,” Jordan told reporters. “They certainly knew about the raid on Mar-a-Lago 91 days before this election, but well if on November 2 the country would have known there were classified documents at the Biden Center.”
Jordan is among House Republicans pushing for the creation of a “select subcommittee on the militarization of the federal government” within the Judiciary Committee.
It was not immediately clear why the White House had not disclosed the discovery of the documents or the DOJ review earlier. CBS was first to report Monday on the discovery of the potentially classified documents.
The Department of Justice has been investigating for months the retention of approximately 300 documents marked as classified and recovered from Trump’s estate in Florida. In this case, prosecutors say, Trump’s representatives resisted demands for the return of all of the classified documents and did not fully comply with a subpoena requesting their return.
In August, FBI agents served a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago’s property, removing 33 boxes and containers.
This investigation is being led by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Prosecutors interviewed a range of Trump associates and used a grand jury to hear evidence.
Democrats made a similar request to the Director of National Intelligence in August following the Mar-a-Lago raid. Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Adam Schiff, who then headed the House Oversight and Intelligence Committees, called on Haines for an “immediate review and damages assessment,” alleging that Trump “has potentially put our national security at grave risk. “.
Intelligence officials do not appear to have informed Congress of their assessment in the four months since, according to public statements by lawmakers. Haines noted in his letter that any risk assessment would not “unduly interfere” with the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago.

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