Potentially classified documents found in Biden Center closet, White House says

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.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Scorching hot sauces that pack a punch
The Week Recommends The best sauces to tingle your lips and add a fiery kick to your food
-
Syria’s strange post-Assad election
The Explainer Sunday’s limited vote ‘suited the phase Syria is undergoing’, says interim president
-
Why did the China spying case collapse?
Today’s Big Question Unwillingness to call China an ‘enemy’ apparently scuppered espionage trial
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?
Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
‘This isn’t just semantics’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Miami Freedom Tower’s MAGA library squeeze
THE EXPLAINER Plans to place Donald Trump’s presidential library next to an iconic symbol of Florida’s Cuban immigrant community has South Florida divided
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US