Washington: President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he was "speechless" when he learned that his lawyers had searched government records at his former Washington, DC office space.
He was questioned about the matter after the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee requested that US intelligence conduct a "harm assessment" of potentially classified documents.
When contacted by the National Archives shortly after the search at the Penn Biden Center offices, Biden's lawyers "did what they should have done," according to Biden, speaking to reporters in Mexico City.
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From the time he left office as Vice President in 2017 until just before launching his presidential campaign in 2019, he maintained an office there.
The White House confirmed that the Justice Department was looking into "a small number of documents with classified markings" that were discovered at the workplace.
On Monday, November 2, 2022, in his first comments following news of the document's discovery, Biden said, "I was briefed about this discovery and am surprised to learn that there are any government records that were taken into that office." went." He continued, "I do not know what is in the documents," and said that his lawyers had advised him not to be questioned.
Biden's retention of the documents put him in "potential violation of laws protecting national security, including the Espionage Act and the Presidential Records Act," according to Rep. Mike Turner, who sent the request to National Intelligence Director Avril Haines earlier Tuesday. .
Regardless of the outcome of a federal investigation, the president may experience political difficulties as a result of information that Biden may have improperly handled sensitive or presidential records. The president has criticized former President Donald Trump for keeping a large number of such records at his Florida country club.
Turner wrote to Haines that "those entrusted with access to classified information have a duty and an obligation to protect it." "This matter requires a comprehensive investigation,"
Rep. James Comer, the newly elected Republican head of the House Oversight Committee, wrote to the Office of White House Counsel on Tuesday asking for copies of records searched in the Biden office, communications regarding the search and a list of individuals who may have had access to the site. had access to There was no immediate response to a request by the White House.
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In September, Haines agreed to an assessment of the risks of the Trump case in opposition to its damages. There are significant differences between the circumstances involving Trump and Biden, including the seriousness of the ongoing grand jury investigation into the Mar-a-Lago incident.
The purpose of the intelligence risk assessment in the Trump documents is to look at both the potential risk to national security that could arise from the disclosure of the relevant documents as well as the classification of the seized records.
Sen. Mark Warner, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, requested a briefing on the documents.
"We expect to be provided with information about what happened both at Mar-a-Lago and at the Biden office as part of our constitutional oversight obligations," he said. Classified to protect our most important national security secrets. Our system exists."
According to what we currently know, the latter involves finding and handing over documents with markings. This is of course different from the prolonged effort to maintain content that the government is actively seeking. But once again, this is why we need briefings.
When Biden's lawyers discovered the record, they alerted the National Archives and Records Administration on Monday, which took possession of the record the next day, according to special counsel to the president Richard Sauber.
According to Sauber, "Since that discovery, the President's personal attorneys have worked closely with the Archives and the Department of Justice in the process of ensuring that any records from the Obama-Biden administration are in the proper hands of the Archives.
Attorney General Merrick Garland requested John Losch, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, to review the case after the Archives referred the case to the department.
according to a person with knowledge of the situation but who was not authorized to speak publicly about it. Lausch is one of the few remaining US attorneys general from Trump's presidency.
On Monday, Trump weighed in on social media, asking whether the FBI would possibly raid several of Joe Biden's residences, including the White House.
Republicans are promising to launch extensive investigations into Biden's administration now that they are in charge of the House of Representatives.
The information could make it more difficult for the Justice Department to decide whether to charge Trump, who is running for president again in 2024 and has frequently argued that the department's investigation of his own actions amounted to "corruption."
A Monday comment request did not receive a prompt response from the National Archives. Garland and Lausch's spokespeople declined to comment.
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Asserting that "NARA's inconsistent treatment of recovering classified records held by former President Trump and President Biden raises questions about political bias at the agency," omer also wrote to the National Archives asking for records and correspondence pertaining to the discovery of the Biden documents.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of his party, stated that Biden's attorneys "appear to have taken immediate and appropriate action."
"I am confident that the attorney general took the necessary steps to ensure that the circumstances surrounding the possession and discovery of these documents were carefully reviewed and that a fair determination was made regarding any necessary further action," he continued.
The influential House Judiciary Committee's chair, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, stated on Monday that the American people deserved to be informed earlier about the classified documents.
Jordan told reporters, "They knew about this a week before the election, maybe the American people should have known that." They were aware of the Mar-a-Lago raid 91 days before the election, but it would have been nice if the public had known on November 2 that there were secret documents at the Biden Center.
Jordan is one of the House Republicans urging the Judiciary Committee to establish a "select subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal government."
Why the White House didn't announce the discovery of the documents or the DOJ review earlier was not immediately clear. Monday's discovery of the potentially sensitive documents was first reported by CBS.
Since several months ago, the Justice Department has been looking into the retention of about 300 classified documents that were found at Donald Trump's Florida estate.
Prosecutors claim that in that case, Trump's representatives refused to hand over the entire cache of classified documents and disobeyed a subpoena that demanded their return.
33 boxes and containers were taken from the Mar-a-Lago property by FBI agents who executed a search warrant there in August.
Jack Smith, a special counsel, is in charge of that investigation. Numerous Trump associates have been questioned by prosecutors, who have also used a grand jury to hear testimony.
Following the Mar-a-Lago search, Democrats sent the director of national intelligence a similar request in August. The leaders of the House Oversight and Intelligence committees at the time, Reps.
Carolyn Maloney and Adam Schiff, requested Haines conduct a "immediate review and damage assessment" because they believed Trump "may have seriously jeopardised our national security."
According to lawmakers' public statements, it is believed that in the four months since, intelligence officials did not brief Congress on their assessment.
In her letter, Haines said that any risk assessment would not "unduly interfere" with the Justice Department's criminal investigation into the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago.
