The White House has confirmed that a “small number” of classified documents have been discovered at the residence of United States President Joe Biden in the state of Delaware. The White House stated that the files have been given to the Department of Justice.
On Thursday, White House special counsel Richard Sauber said that documents from Biden’s time as vice president with classified markings were discovered in the garage of the new president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.
According to a statement released by Sauber, an additional one-page document was discovered in a room adjacent to the garage. In Joe and Jill Biden’s second home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, no documents were discovered.
After the records were found and taken into custody by department lawyers, Sauber stated that the Department of Justice was informed “immediately.” He stated that the administration is “fully cooperating” with the proper handling of the records.
The discovery came just a few days after US media reported that in November, files from Biden’s time as vice president at a Washington, DC think tank contained classified information.
According to the White House counsel on Monday, nearly ten documents that were discovered at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the time were handed over to the appropriate authorities.
During a news conference on Thursday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said that he was appointing Robert Hur, a former Maryland US attorney, as special counsel to look into how Vice President Biden handled sensitive government documents.
Garland stated to reporters, “This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions that are indisputably guided only by the facts and the law.”
“I am confident that Mr. Hur will carry out his responsibility with fairness, urgency, and in accordance with this department’s highest traditions,”
According to Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, who was reporting from Washington earlier in the day, the discoveries have exposed the White House to criticism, despite the fact that the Biden administration claims to have carried out everything necessary following the discovery of the files.
According to Halkett, Republicans have stated that the documents not only reveal Biden’s hypocrisy in criticizing his predecessor Donald Trump for his own alleged mishandling of classified documents but also expose intelligence sources and methods.
After Trump left the White House in January 2021, the Justice Department is looking into how he handled classified documents that he kept at his personal residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
However, Halkett reported that numerous legal experts have stated that the primary distinction between the two situations is that, whereas US authorities required a subpoena to retrieve documents from Trump’s residence when the Biden team discovered the files, they were immediately surrendered.
Halkett stated, “In other words, the former president may face charges or prosecution for obstruction of justice.”
Despite numerous requests from the National Archives, Trump did not immediately or willingly return thousands of government records, some of which were marked as classified.
In January of last year, when he did hand over 15 boxes of records, the archives discovered that over 100 of them were marked as classified. It referred the matter to the Justice Department, and the investigation has been overseen by a special counsel.
Biden told reporters on Thursday that “people know I take classified documents and classified materials seriously” when asked about the documents found at his Delaware residence. He stated once more that his administration is fully cooperating with the Justice Department’s investigation.
However, the White House has refused to respond to inquiries regarding the reason why it withheld information about the discovery of the initial set of documents for more than two months. On November 2, a few days before congressional elections, they were discovered.
“We followed the rules when we did this. During a news briefing on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that “what I mean by that is the moment that the lawyers discovered that the papers were there, or the documents were there, they reached out to the Archives, they reached out to [the] Department of Justice.”
Jean-Pierre stated, “The president’s lawyers have been cooperating fully – fully,” adding that she was “limited” in her ability to speak publicly as a result of the ongoing investigation. She later stated that the White House counsel and the Department of Justice should be contacted with additional inquiries.
Biden was unaware that the records were present. Jean-Pierre stated, “He was surprised that the records were there.”
A “damage assessment” of potentially classified documents has been requested by the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.
If you believe a special counsel is necessary to assure the public about the handling of classified documents by Donald Trump, you should apply a special counsel to the mishandling of classified documents by President Biden when he was Vice President. https://t.co/sKve6tbRr7
Accusing the Biden administration of hypocrisy, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters on Thursday, “I think Congress has to investigate this.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES