President Joe Biden’s personal attorneys reportedly misled the Department of Justice (DOJ) in November about classified documents being stored at his Wilmington residence.
Shortly after documents at the Penn Biden Center were unearthed on November 2, the White House and DOJ reportedly agreed to hide the scandal from the American people. It’s unclear why Biden’s personal attorneys were initially searching for his illegally stashed documents. The White House has failed to provide the initial reason or cause for the search.
After the initial discovery on November 2, Biden’s personal attorneys told the DOJ that the only location where troves of classified were stored was at the Penn Biden Center, the New York Times reported Sunday.
Weeks later, Biden’s personal attorneys unearthed additional troves at his garage on December 20. Still, the scandal remained hidden from the public, despite later claims of total transparency.
On January 9, the scandal was leaked to CBS News. White House officials are reportedly suspicious about how Biden’s classified document scandal was leaked to the press after only a select group of White House and DOJ officials knew about the violation.
The leak of the scandal apparently caused Biden’s attorneys to resume searching his home for more classified documents. The searches took place and unearthed more classified materials on January 11 and 12. At that point, a total of 25 classified documents had been found to be mishandled by the president.
On January 14, the White House claimed that all searches for all classified documents were completed but would not confirm if additional classified documents remained under Biden’s personal possession in violation of the law.
The additional troves unearthed by Biden’s personal attorneys were followed by the DOJ’s request to conduct its own search of his home. The president’s attorney’s agreed. The DOJ’s search was conducted Friday and found six more items consisting of classified marking, according to the president’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer. The trove unearthed Friday is in addition to the about 25 classified documents Biden’s personal attorneys found in past weeks both at the Penn Biden Center and his residence.
While visiting California Thursday, Biden said he has “no regrets” about mishandling the classified materials and claimed there was “no ‘there’ there.” The classified materials were initially unearthed just days before the midterm elections.
“I think you’re gonna find there’s nothing there. I have no regrets. I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. That’s exactly what we’re doing. There’s no ‘there’ there,” he said.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
