January 9, 2023
President Biden’s classified documents explained.
Turns out former President Trump wasn’t the only one with classified documents found in a private office.
The Justice Department is now investigating the discovery of classified documents in president Biden’s private office that he was using after he left his role as Vice President. The Department of Justice is now conducting a damage assessment after a referral from the national archives.
I know the first thing we all want to do is compare these Biden classified documents verses the Trump classified documents. So let’s go through four categories of what we know so far.
Starting with the location: the Biden documents were found in a locked in a closet at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. That’s a think tank for the University of Pennsylvania to study global policy to strengthen the US standing on the world stage. Biden hadn’t used the office since 2019 according to the White House.
The Trump documents were found unsecured at his Mar-a-Lago home in boxes mixed with other memorabilia and in desk drawers unsecured.
The numbers: the White House says there were fewer than a dozen of these Biden documents found in his office at the Penn Biden center.
As for the Trump documents — we know based on the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago thousands of White House documents were found at the former President’s beach resort. Of the 184 classified documents there were 67 documents marked confidential, 92 documents marked secret and 25 marked as top-secret documents some including nuclear information.
Now to the national archives: the White House says these Biden documents were discovered by Biden’s lawyers who were closing out that Penn Biden Center office in early November. Those lawyers immediately contacted the national archives to turn the documents over and figure out how they got there. The national archives was not looking for or requesting these documents.
As for the Trump documents, we know the national archives had been asking the former President to return those documents for more than a year and you the story about how the trump team said they had turned all of them over but then the FBI found thousands of documents after a search warrant was issued.
Now to the President vs Vice President: former President Trump publicly said he declassified all those documents at Mar-a-Lago as his justification for keeping those them away from the archives and unsecured. Now Presidents do have the power to declassify anything they want. Though it’s important to note none of Trump’s legal team has ever claimed he declassified the documents in any legal filing made to any court.
When it comes to Biden, as a Vice-President he doesn’t have the authority to declassify anything. So why are there classified documents outside of the national archives possession and instead found in his office closet?
Lastly let’s talk about what we don’t know when it comes to the Biden documents. I’m going to be honest – there’s a lot we don’t know. But for sure we don’t know what level of classification these documents were whether they’re confidential, secret or top secret, we don’t know what information these documents contained and we don’t how they got to the Penn Biden center or who packed those boxes.
The Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned a US Attorney to look this case.
Read the White House statement from Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden.
“The White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified markings. The documents were discovered when the President’s personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. The President periodically used this space from mid-2017 until the start of the 2020 campaign. On the day of this discovery, November 2, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office notified the National Archives. The Archives took possession of the materials the following morning.”
“The discovery of these documents was made by the President’s attorneys. The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives. 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.”
