There Has Been The Discovery Of Secret Documents In The Ex-Joe Biden Office, Republicans Encourage Investigation
JAKARTA - A secret document while Joe Biden was still serving as Vice President of the United States under former President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017, was discovered last November by the President's personal attorney in a think tank office, a White House attorney said.
Nearly 10 documents were found at Biden's former office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, about a mile from the White House, CBS News reported, adding US Attorney General totaling Garland had asked US prosecutors in Chicago to review classified documents submitted to the National Archives.
The classified material was identified by President Biden's personal attorney on November 2, days before the part-time elections, said Richard Sauber, the president's special adviser, in a statement on Monday.
Joe Biden is known to periodically use office spaces at the Penn Biden Center from mid-2017 to early 2020 presidential election campaigns.
The White House Advisory Office notified the National Archives on the day the documents were discovered, Sauber said, adding the National Archives took the material the next morning.
Sauber also said the documents were not the subject of previous requests or investigations by the National Archives.
The documents were discovered when Biden's personal attorney "was packaging files stored in locked cupboards to prepare to vacate the office room at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC," Sauber said, adding the White House was working with the Department of Justice and the National Archives.
Sauber's statement did not mention the number of classified documents, what their contents were, or the level of classification. CBS News reports the document does not contain nuclear secrets.
Jamie Raskin, deputy Democrat on the House of Representatives' Supervisory Committee, said in a statement President Biden's lawyers "appear to have taken immediate and appropriate action" after finding the document.
Raskin said he believed Attorney General Garland would "make impartial decisions about further action that may be needed."
Meanwhile, a US Congressional committee said it would investigate why classified files could be found in President Biden's former private office.
The supervisory panel "worries that President Biden has compromised sources (intelligences)," Republican politician James Comer said, citing the BBC.
Comer has asked the White House to submit documents and communications related to classified documents, as well as a list of people who have access to the office room, no later than January 24. That's a request, not an official call.
Separately in Mexico City, President Biden, who was attending a meeting of North American leaders, said he was shocked by the discovery.
"I don't know what's in the document," President Biden said.
"We are working closely with the review," he added.
The level of document classification or why the document exists is unclear. Citing sources familiar with the matter, CNN reported that the 10 classified files included US intelligence memos and briefing material that included Ukrainian, Iranian and British topics.
The discovery also reminded a separate investigation by the Justice Department into former President Donald Trump, a very sensitive classified document he kept at his Florida resort, after leaving the White House in January 2021.
FBI agents conducted a court-approved search on August 8 in Mar-a-Lago. About 100 documents were characterized as classified as classified among the thousands of archives seized from there.
However, it said there was a major difference between the Joe Biden and Donald Trump cases. Trump's investigation deals with more than 300 documents with classified marks, including 18 very secret.
Federal prosecutors have accused Trump's legal team of not cooperating with the National Archives enough to return the documents correctly, prompting a historic FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.
The White House said Biden's lawyers informed the National Archives as soon as they found the material, with the agency taking the material the next morning.
Donald Trump has commented on the matter on his social media site, Truth Social.
"Why doesn't the Department of 'Jury' not announce the Very Secret documents found at Biden's Office before the election?" he posted on Tuesday.
"A VP (vice president) cannot classify documents," he said in another post, adding: "A President, I, can classify."