A new report has revealed that attorneys for Joe Biden made a deal with the Department of Justice, after the first batch of classified documents were found inside one of the offices of the Penn Biden Center, and they both agreed that Biden’s personal attorneys would search for more classified documents without the FBI monitoring them.
This of course is raising red flags with Republicans who are asking why Biden’s DOJ did not oversee the search for his stashed classified documents while it raided President Donald Trump’s private home in Florida to look for the same.
In Biden’s case, the classified documents were also found at Biden’s Delaware home that apparently he shared with Hunter Biden. According to new documents Hunter listed that he paid Joe nearly $50,000 a month for rent at the Delaware residence where those documents were found. In a background document, Hunter checked the box that indicated he owned the home.
The report said that Biden Lawyers were able to avoid FBI involvement because they turned over the first batch of documents voluntarily. However, critics say Biden’s personal attorneys – who do not have security clearance – should not have been allowed to search for classified documents on their own and that the DOJ and FBI been compromised and weaponized for political gain and bias.
In addition, Biden’s White House Counsel was then allowed to facilitate the handing over of the documents to the DOJ.
Rather than FBI agents carrying machine guns, descending on Biden’s Delaware home, like they did with Trump, the Justice Department struck a deal with Biden’s lawyers on how the searches would be conducted.
According to the WSJ,
“[The] two sides agreed that Mr. Biden’s personal attorneys would inspect the homes, notify the Justice Department as soon as they identified any other potentially classified records, and arrange for law-enforcement authorities to take them.”
The Wall Street Journal reported:
The Justice Department considered having FBI agents monitor a search by President Biden’s lawyers for classified documents at his homes but decided against it, both to avoid complicating later stages of the investigation and because Mr. Biden’s attorneys had quickly turned over a first batch and were cooperating, according to people familiar with the matter.
After Mr. Biden’s lawyers discovered documents marked as classified dating from his term as vice president at an office he used at a Washington-based think tank on Nov. 2, the Justice Department opened an inquiry into why and how they got there. Mr. Biden’s legal team prepared to search his other properties for any similar documents, and discussed with the Justice Department the prospect of having FBI agents present while Mr. Biden’s lawyers conducted the additional searches.
The discussions and the Justice Department’s willingness to let the Biden lawyers do the searches unsupervised also suggest federal investigators are girding for a monthslong inquiry that could stretch well into Mr. Biden’s third year in office.
One reason not to involve the FBI at an early stage: That way the Justice Department would preserve the ability to take a tougher line, including executing a future search warrant, if negotiations ever turned hostile, current and former law-enforcement officials said.
