The Joe Biden file case is expanding: The US Department of Justice has confiscated six documents marked confidential from his Wilmington home.
In the search for government documents, investigators came across other secret documents in the private chambers of US President Joe Biden. The US Department of Justice has seized six documents with confidential markings from Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden’s attorney Bob Bauer said Saturday. Some of that came from Biden’s time as vice president, some from his time as a senator.
The nearly 13-hour search had already taken place on Friday and included “every working, living and storage room” in the house. The White House is trying to limit the damage after receiving a lot of criticism for its information policy. Because in recent weeks, confidential documents have repeatedly appeared in Biden’s private rooms – in Delaware and Washington. The public only learned of some of the discoveries when the media reported on them. Attorney General Merrick Garland hired a special attorney to investigate the incidents.
Biden wants to cooperate with investigators
Biden’s attorney has now emphasized that investigators were given “unrestricted access” to the home during the Friday search. All kinds of documents such as handwritten notes, files, folders, memorabilia, to-do lists and timelines, some of which dated back decades, were made available. Biden himself made clear on Thursday that he was “cooperating fully” with the Justice Department. “I think you’ll see there’s nothing there,” he said when asked by reporters at a meeting in California.
The revelations are extremely politically sensitive for the president – because he is not allowed to keep sensitive government documents privately after leaving office. The National Archives are responsible for this in the USA.
The first installment of classified government documents was discovered on November 2 – just before the US Congressional elections. The White House emphasizes that Biden’s lawyers immediately informed the National Archives. However, the public didn’t find out about it until January, when CBS reported. In response to the initial finding, the Biden team looked elsewhere.
Developments are reminiscent of Trump
The discovery of documents is also very explosive for Biden because former Republican President Donald Trump caused a scandal with a similar case in the summer: after leaving the White House, Trump kept large amounts of confidential government documents on his private property in Florida . The FBI searched the property in August and confiscated several confidential documents. Biden was critical of Trump’s handling of the documents at the time.
In Trump’s case, Garland also used an independent special investigator for the politically sensitive investigation – mainly because Trump announced a renewed candidacy for the presidency and criticized the investigation against him as politically motivated. Biden has also repeatedly stated his overall intention to run again in the 2024 presidential election. He has yet to make a final decision public.
Trump responded with glee on Saturday. On his online platform “Truth Social”, he wrote to Biden and his team: “You yourself have created this documentary chaos by shooting me so hard – I have done nothing wrong.”
(APA/dpa)