Congressman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has launched his first investigation – as Chair of the House Judiciary Committee- into Joe Biden and his classified documents scandal. The investigation comes on the heels of a special counsel was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to look into the matter, former U.S. attorney Robert Hur.
The special counsel was appointed after classified documents were found in two different offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington D.C, and a third stash was found inside the garage of Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home. On Saturday it was announced that more classified documents were being stored at Biden’s home than previously thought.
Many critics are questioning the money The University of Pennsylvania received from China directly after the Penn- Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement was formed. In fact, more than $30 million was donated by Chinese donors. The Center functioned as an office for Biden
In a letter written by Jordan and Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., to Garland, they indicated their intentions,
“We are conducting oversight of the Justice Department’s actions with respect to former Vice President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, including the apparently unauthorized possession of classified material at a Washington, D.C., private office and in the garage of his Wilmington, Delaware, residence. On January 12, 2023, you appointed Robert Hur as Special Counsel to investigate these matters. The circumstances of this appointment raise fundamental oversight questions that the Committee routinely examines. We expect your complete cooperation with our inquiry.”
Jordan wants to know why, if the White House knew about the first batch of documents at the Penn Biden Center days before the 2022 midterms, was their discovery not revealed until January 2023,
“It is unclear when the Department first came to learn about the existence of these documents, and whether it actively concealed this information from the public on the eve of the 2022 elections. It is also unclear what interactions, if any, the Department had with President Biden or his representatives about his mishandling of classified material. The Department’s actions here appear to depart from how it acted in similar circumstances.”
The letter also talked about the FBI’s very public raid on President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home while the same actions aren’t being taken with Biden,
“In fact, on August 8, 2022, despite the publicly available evidence of President Trump’s voluntary cooperation, you personally approved the decision to seek a warrant for excessive and unprecedented access to his private residence. On August 15, 2022, Committee Republicans wrote to you and FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting documents and information related to the FBI’s raid of President Trump’s residence,” the letter said.
Biden slammed Trump at the time for being “irresponsible” for keeping classified documents.
Meanwhile, Lawyers for President Joe Biden found more classified documents at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, than previously known, the White House acknowledged Saturday.
White House lawyer Richard Sauber said in a statement that a total of six pages of classified documents were found during a search of Biden’s private library. The White House had said previously that only a single page was found there.
The latest disclosure is in addition to the discovery of documents found in December in Biden’s garage and in November at his former offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, from his time as vice president. The apparent mishandling of classified documents and official records from the Obama administration are under investigation by a former U.S. attorney, Robert Hur, who was appointed as a special counsel on Thursday by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Sauber said in a statement Saturday that Biden’s personal lawyers, who did not have security clearances, stopped their search after finding the first page on Wednesday evening. Sauber found the remaining material Thursday, as he was facilitating their retrieval by the Department of Justice.
“While I was transferring it to the DOJ officials who accompanied me, five additional pages with classification markings were discovered among the material with it, for a total of six pages,” Sauber said. “The DOJ officials with me immediately took possession of them.”
Sauber has previously said that the White House was “confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.”
Sauber’s statement did not explain why the White House waited two days to provide an updated accounting of the number of classified documents records. The White House is already facing scrutiny for waiting more than two months to acknowledge the discovery of the initial group of documents at the Biden office and for the drastically different stance taken with Biden than with Trump.
The Justice Department historically imposes a high legal bar before bringing criminal charges in cases involving the mishandling of classified information, with a requirement that someone intended to break the law as opposed to being merely careless or negligent in doing so. The primary statute governing the illegal removal and retention of classified documents makes it a crime to “knowingly” remove classified documents and store them in an unauthorized way.
