The Justice Department actually decided against having FBI agents monitor a search by Joe Biden’s personal lawyers for classified documents.
Joe Biden’s personal lawyers do not have security clearances yet they were allowed to rummage through Joe Biden’s boxes of documents in search of top secret materials.
Biden’s White House Counsel was then allowed to facilitate the handing over of the documents to the DOJ.
Rather than machine gun-toting FBI agents descending on Biden’s Delaware homes, the Justice Department and Biden’s lawyers came to an agreement on how the searches would be conducted.
“[The] two sides agreed that Mr. Biden’s personal attorneys would inspect the homes, notify the Justice Department as soon as they identified any other potentially classified records, and arrange for law-enforcement authorities to take them.” – The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
The Justice Department considered having FBI agents monitor a search by President Biden’s lawyers for classified documents at his homes but decided against it, both to avoid complicating later stages of the investigation and because Mr. Biden’s attorneys had quickly turned over a first batch and were cooperating, according to people familiar with the matter.
After Mr. Biden’s lawyers discovered documents marked as classified dating from his term as vice president at an office he used at a Washington-based think tank on Nov. 2, the Justice Department opened an inquiry into why and how they got there. Mr. Biden’s legal team prepared to search his other properties for any similar documents, and discussed with the Justice Department the prospect of having FBI agents present while Mr. Biden’s lawyers conducted the additional searches.
The discussions and the Justice Department’s willingness to let the Biden lawyers do the searches unsupervised also suggest federal investigators are girding for a monthslong inquiry that could stretch well into Mr. Biden’s third year in office.
One reason not to involve the FBI at an early stage: That way the Justice Department would preserve the ability to take a tougher line, including executing a future search warrant, if negotiations ever turned hostile, current and former law-enforcement officials said.
According to Joe Biden’s lawyer, Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal lawyers do not have security clearances so as soon as they saw the documents marked classified last week, they stopped the search.
For this reason, this is why the actual number of classified documents stored at Biden’s private residence is not known, the lawyer said.
Joe Biden stored top-secret files with the “sensitive compartmented information” (SCIF) designation at Penn Biden Center in DC.
Government officials discovered more classified documents at Joe Biden’s Delaware home – in the garage next to his Corvette.
Was Joe Biden also rummaging through his own boxes?
Biden was able to return to the scene of the crime where he might have been able to rummage through his own boxes of documents.
A CBS reporter asked KJP on Tuesday why Joe Biden’s counsel, Richard Sauber, was allowed to go to Wilmington to facilitate the handing over of documents to the Justice Department.
“You’ve repeatedly emphasized the need as you did today for independence…of the…investigation…I wonder why did the WH counsel go to Wilmington to facilitate the handing over of documents to the DOJ? How is that separating the WH from…DOJ?” CBS’s Weijia Jiang asked Karine Jean-Pierre.
Of course she didn’t answer the question.
CBS’s @Weijia Jiang to KJP: “You’ve repeatedly emphasized the need as you did today for independence…of the…investigation…I wonder why did the WH counsel go to Wilmington to facilitate the handing over of documents to the DOJ? How is that separating the WH from…DOJ?” pic.twitter.com/OpjVp3LB8T
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 17, 2023
The CBS reporter was not satisfied with Karine Jean-Pierre’s answer and asked her once again why Biden’s lawyers are allowed to search for the classified documents.
CBS’s @Weijia: “It’s related to something…you keep telling us, which is how much it is important…to separate…from the DOJ’s investigation. But the WH counsel was the one to…facilitate the documents, to look for [them]”
KJP: “Again, they have been working very closely” pic.twitter.com/W8geZw0uNW
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 17, 2023
Story cited here.
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