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President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was “shocked” when he learned they found classified documents to his personal office when he served as vice president and said he doesn’t know what’s in those records.
“I don’t know what the documents contain, my lawyers have not suggested that I ask what the documents were about. They have delivered the boxes to the archives and we are fully cooperating with the review,” Biden said at a press conference after the North American Leaders Summit in Mexico City.
The documents were found by Biden’s own lawyers in the offices of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Engagement, which Biden founded after his time as vice president of Barack Obama (2009-2017).
On the day of this discovery, November 2, 2022, the White House Attorney’s Office notified the National Archives (NARA). The Archive took possession of the materials the next morning,” said Richard Sauber, special adviser to President Biden.
From Congress they ask to investigate what happened
Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress on Tuesday called for more information about the discovery of classified documents left in an office that prompted a Justice Department review.
Kentucky Republican Representative James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, on Tuesday asked the White House and the National Archives to produce by January 24 all documents and communications between NARA, the White House, the Justice Department and Biden’s lawyers regarding the classified documents and raised concerns about possible political bias at the National Archives.
“NARA instigated an unprecedented public raid by the FBI on Mar-a-Lago, the home of former President Trump, to recover presidential records. NARA’s inconsistent treatment of retrieving classified records held by former President Trump and President Biden raises questions about political bias at the agency,” Comer wrote in a letter to Debra Steidel Wall, the acting archivist.
Also, Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark R. Warner, Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, requested a briefing on Biden’s classified documents while renewing a request about classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago, which is at the center of a Justice Department criminal investigation.
“Our classification system exists to protect our most important national security secrets, and we look forward to receiving information about what happened at both Mar-a-Lago and the Biden office as part of our constitutional oversight obligations,” Warner said in a statement.
Classified documents found in Biden’s office were mixed with other personal documents, including documents related to funeral planning for Beau Biden, the president’s son who died in 2015, a person familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post. who like others spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
But The discovery of these classified documents in an office that belonged to President Biden is already a headache for the president. that he was highly critical of the discovery of hundreds of government documents at Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago.
With information from The Washington Post, CNN and Agencia EFE