The chairman of House Oversight Committee told Breitbart News it plans to probe the Biden administration’s reported plan to hide the classified document scandal from the American people.
According to the Washington Post on Thursday, the White House and Justice Department not only agreed to obscure the scandal from public view, but they also refused to divulge that the second trove of classified documents was already unearthed at Biden’s home in Wilmington when CBS News first contacted the White House about the initial leak of classified documents illegally stored at the Biden Penn Center.
“The Biden White House’s secrecy in this matter is alarming,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told Breitbart News. “Many questions need to be answered but one thing is certain: oversight is coming.”
The White House, Justice Department, and National Archives have so far failed to respond to congressional demands for information related to the scandal.
The stonewalling has been amplified by the White House’s inconsistent timeline of events. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre falsely claimed on January 12 that the search for Biden’s classified documents was completed.
That timeline was contradicted on January 14, when the White House admitted five more documents had been found on January 12. Jean-Pierre later claimed she was out of the loop with the White House, Justice Department, and Biden’s personal attorneys.
Both Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), who has also launched an investigation into the scandal, and Comer believe the White House’s timeline is crooked.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) January 18, 2023
“We first learned about the Penn Biden Center classified documents months after they were found in an unsecure closet,” Comer explained about the timeline of events. “Then it took the White House weeks to inform the public about the documents found in President Biden’s Wilmington garage. And days later, we learned that there were more documents at the Wilmington residence.”
Comer also noted his concern about the search by the president’s personal attorneys for the classified materials on January 12 after the Justice Department had already appointed a special counsel earlier that day to investigate the scandal.
“Equally alarming is the fact that Biden aides were combing through documents knowing there would be a Special Counsel appointed,” he added.
In total, about 25 classified documents — some of which are top secret — have been found by Biden’s personal attorneys between the locations at the Biden Penn Center and the president’s personal residence in Delaware.
Critics have questioned why Biden’s personal attorneys were initially looking for classified documents. The White House has not yet explained why or what caused the attorneys to search for the classified materials.
Comer believes the American people would not have known of the unearthed documents in the Biden Penn Center or Biden’s home if CBS News had not first reported the scandal.
The White House claimed total transparency after the scandal broke.
According to a Wednesday Quinnipiac poll, 60 percent of Americans believe Biden inappropriately mishandled classified materials related to Ukraine, Iran, and the United Kingdom.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
