Personal lawyers for President Biden discovered "a small number of documents with classified markings" in the locked closet of an office Biden used at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington from 2017 to 2019, White House special counsel Richard Sauber said Monday. The roughly 10 documents were discovered Nov. 2 and handed over to the National Archives and Records Administration on Nov. 3, Sauber said.
The National Archives referred the matter to the Justice Department, and Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned U.S. Attorney John Lausch in Chicago to review what's in the potentially classified documents and how they ended up in the Penn Biden Center, CBS News reports.
Lausch is one of two U.S. attorneys appointed by former President Donald Trump that Biden kept on after his inauguration. ("The other is Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who is leading an investigation into the president's son, Hunter Biden," CBS News notes.) His review is reportedly near completion, and then Garland will decide whether the incident merits a criminal investigation.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by Garland, is investigating some 300 classified documents found in Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence last August. "While the Biden case has obvious echoes of the Mar-a-Lago investigation, the details provided by Biden's lawyer on Monday suggest key differences that could factor heavily in whether the Biden documents become a criminal matter," The Washington Post reports.
The main difference is that the Mar-a-Lago files were seized in a raid months after the National Archives had requested, and a federal grand jury had subpoenaed, documents Trump had improperly retained from his presidency. Smith is looking into obstruction of justice and destruction of records charges along with ones pertaining to mishandling of classified material.
In Biden's case, "the documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives," Saubert said. "Since that discovery, the president's personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives."
House Republicans nevertheless vowed to investigate the matter and criticized the White House for not informing voters of these documents before the November midterm elections.
-
The ‘Shakespearean bitterness’ of the thermostat warsTalking Point ‘Genuine physiological differences’ mean women and men are at odds over temperatures at home
-
China’s rare earth controlsThe Explainer Beijing has shocked Washington with export restrictions on minerals used in most electronics
-
Quiz of The Week: 11 – 17 OctoberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
-
Pentagon reporters turn in badges after refusing rulesSpeed Read They refused to sign a restrictive new press policy imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
-
Supreme Court points to gutting Voting Rights Actspeed read States would no longer be required to consider race when drawing congressional maps
-
Trump says he authorized covert CIA ops in VenezuelaSpeed Read He is also considering military strikes inside the country
-
Are inflatable costumes and naked bike rides helping or hurting ICE protests?Talking Points Trump administration efforts to portray Portland and Chicago as dystopian war zones have been met with dancing frogs, bare butts and a growing movement to mock MAGA doomsaying
-
‘Are we just going to stand in passive witness to the degradation of our democracy?’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
‘Vile, racist’ leaked chats roil Young RepublicansSpeed Read Leaders of Young Republican groups made racist, antisemitic and violent comments in private chats
-
Trump ties $20B Argentina bailout to Milei votesspeed read Trump will boost Argentina’s economy — if the country’s right-wing president wins upcoming elections
-
Venezuela: Does Trump want war?Feature Donald Trump has accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of leading a drug cartel and waging a narco-terrorism campaign against the United States
