Global News Through a Greek Lens

Monday, May 13, 2024
Monday, May 13, 2024

Biden classified documents: White House won’t say why it didn’t disclose earlier that records were found

by | Jan 11, 2023 | English

BREAKING News

By Dan Mangan, CNBC

  • The White House Counsel’s Office would not answer why it failed for more than two months to publicly disclose that classified government documents had been found in a private office in Washington, D.C., that had been used by President Joe Biden before his election in 2020.
  • Biden, during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico, did not respond to a question from reporters about the documents, which were found by personal lawyers.
  • former President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that the Justice Department kept quiet about the documents’ discovery in order not to affect the outcome of November’s congressional elections when his fellow Republican candidates underperformed expectations.

The White House Counsel’s Office on Tuesday would not answer why it failed for more than two months to publicly disclose that classified government documents had been found in a private office in Washington, D.C., that had been used by President Joe Biden before his election in 2020.

“This is an ongoing process under review by [the Department of Justice], so we are going to be limited in what we can say at this time,” Ian Sams, spokesman for White House Counsel’s Office, told NBC News when asked why the Biden administration did not disclose earlier the discovery in November of the classified material.

“But we are committed to doing this the right way, and we will provide further details when and as appropriate,” Sams said.

Biden, during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico, did not respond to a question from reporters about the documents, which were found by personal lawyers.

NBC News later reported Tuesday that the number of classified documents found on Nov. 2 at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement numbered fewer than a dozen.

Former President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that the DOJ kept quiet about the documents’ discovery in order not to affect the outcome of November’s congressional elections when his fellow Republican candidates underperformed expectations.

“Why didn’t the ‘Justice’ Department announce the Highly Classified documents found in the Biden Office before the Election?” Trump wrote in a post on his social media site, Truth Social.

Trump is under criminal investigation by the DOJ for failing to surrender government documents, including many marked classified or highly classified, when he left office.

The documents were found in Trump’s residence at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, during a raid in early August by the FBI, three months before classified records were found in the Biden office.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, on Tuesday said his committee should be briefed by administration officials about the discovery of the documents in Biden’s office.

“Our system of classification exists in order to protect our most important national security secrets, and we expect to be briefed on what happened both at Mar-a-Lago and at the Biden office as part of our constitutional oversight obligations,” Warner said.

“From what we know so far, the latter is about finding documents with markings, and turning them over, which is certainly different from a months-long effort to retain material actively being sought by the government,” Warner said. “But again, that’s why we need to be briefed.”

Also Tuesday, Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to ask her to conduct an immediate review and damage assessment about the Biden documents.

“This discovery of classified information would put President Biden in potential violation of laws protecting national security, including the Espionage Act and Presidential Records Act,” Turner wrote.

Breaking News