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Joe Biden has been suddenly and unexpectedly engulfed in a legal and political morass surrounding his handling of classified government records dating back to his time as US vice-president.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the White House said it had retrieved a batch of sensitive material in November from a private office Biden had used at a Washington think-tank. Then on Thursday it acknowledged the more recent discovery of another cache of classified documents in the garage of his residence in Wilmington, Delaware \u2014 also home to his classic Corvette.<\/p>\n
The impact on Biden will depend on the nature of his personal involvement and conduct with regard to the files, but the case has resulted in a big headache for the president. On Thursday Merrick Garland, the attorney-general, said he would appoint a special counsel to examine his handling of the material.<\/p>\n
The effect of the revelations could be profound, with implications for the federal probe into former president Donald Trump\u2019s handling of a far greater trove of classified documents at this Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, as well as Biden\u2019s political future as he prepares for a re-election bid in 2024.<\/p>\n
What was found and when?<\/strong> There, in a locked closet, they found the first set of classified documents dating back to his days as vice-president, and turned them over to the National Archives. CNN reported that they contained information about Ukraine, Iran and the UK, but that has not been confirmed.<\/p>\n After that discovery, which triggered a review by the Department of Justice, Biden\u2019s attorneys proceeded with a search of the president\u2019s two Delaware homes to see if there was any other sensitive material to be found \u2014 a process that ended on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n They found a second stash of government records with classified markings in the garage of his home in Wilmington on December 20, and in an adjacent room this week. Biden\u2019s team is also returning the second set of documents to the National Archives.<\/p>\n On Thursday a reporter asked Biden why he had kept such files next to the classic Corvette he keeps in his garage. He responded by quipping: \u201cBy the way, my Corvette\u2019s in a locked garage\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009it\u2019s not like they\u2019re sitting out on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n How is this case different from Trump\u2019s?<\/strong><\/p>\n The review of Biden\u2019s potential mishandling of classified materials is significant because it comes amid a federal criminal investigation into Trump\u2019s unauthorised possession of government records at Mar-a-Lago dating back to his time in the White House.<\/p>\n There are some similarities, for instance that in both cases it appears the classified documents were improperly transferred out of government facilities during the transition periods between two administrations in early 2017 and early 2021. But there are also some stark differences.<\/p>\n The first is a question of scale: Trump was hoarding more than 100 classified documents, while just 10 such files were found in Biden\u2019s possession.<\/p>\n But the most important question concerns co-operation with federal authorities. While Trump resisted giving the documents up for months, in a stand-off with prosecutors that eventually led to a raid by federal agents, the White House says that Biden\u2019s team immediately turned them over once discovered, acting in good faith.<\/p>\n How much trouble is Biden in? \u201cWe have co-operated closely with the justice department throughout its review, and we will continue that co-operation with the special counsel,\u201d Richard Sauber, a lawyer for Biden, said on Thursday. \u201cWe are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n Even so, the revelations will be damaging to him because he has been scathing about Trump\u2019s attitude towards classified documents, even describing it as \u201cirresponsible\u201d.<\/p>\n Some of the biggest questions surrounding Biden\u2019s conduct involve transparency: why did he or the White House not publicly disclose the existence of classified documents at his private locations sooner? And when was he first made aware of the problem?<\/p>\n In addition, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are asking intelligence agencies to conduct a \u201cdamage assessment\u201d to see if any sources or methods were compromised \u2014 the same scrutiny they demanded in Trump\u2019s case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joe Biden has been suddenly and unexpectedly engulfed in a legal and political morass surrounding his handling of classified government records dating back to his time as US vice-president. On Monday, the White House said it had retrieved a batch of sensitive material in November from a private office Biden had used at a Washington […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":184086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":"","twitter_917774835383787521_917774835383787521":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184085"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184085"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184088,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184085\/revisions\/184088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOn November 2, less than a week before the midterm elections, the president\u2019s lawyers combed through Biden\u2019s private office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a Washington think-tank.<\/p>\n
\nFrom a legal perspective, Biden may not be in serious trouble unless he wilfully and unlawfully retained the sensitive government records, and then deliberately concealed them. So far it appears that this is more likely a case of sloppy handling of the papers by his staff during the 2017 transition, which was corrected as soon as it was discovered, involving no conflict with US authorities.<\/p>\n