A former White House counsel has been subpoenaed as House Republicans investigate classified documents that were found in various places connected with President Joe Biden.
Biden kept classified documents at his home in Delaware and at the offices of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biden Center in Washington from his time as a senator and vice president, long after he had departed those offices and before his election as president.
The classified documents were discovered in three searches between November 2022 and January 2023.
The discoveries came not long after classified documents were discovered at the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump, eventually leading to an indictment against Trump accusing him of improper handling of classified documents.
On Monday, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability issued a subpoena to former White House Counsel Dana Remus while also asking four White House employees for transcribed interviews, according to a news release on the website of the House Oversight Committee.
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Comer has called Remus a “central figure in the early stages of coordinating the packing and moving of boxes that were later found to contain classified materials,” according to Fox News.
“Facts continue to emerge showing that the White House’s narrative of President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents doesn’t add up,” Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer of Kentucky said in the release.
“It is imperative to learn whether President Biden retained sensitive documents related to any countries involving his family’s foreign business dealings that brought in millions for the Biden family,” he said.
Comer said the point of the questioning is to learn “whether our national security has been compromised.”
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The Oversight Committee said in an October release that it believes the classified documents supposedly discovered in November 2022 were actually discovered the previous year.
“President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, including the apparently unauthorized possession of classified material at a Washington, D.C. private office and in the garage of his Delaware residence, raise serious concerns about his mishandling of sensitive intelligence information and his Department of Justice’s double standard of justice,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio said.
“Today’s subpoena and transcribed interview requests represent another step in holding President Biden and the DOJ accountable,” he said.
“The President himself was illegally holding classified material for some purpose, the American people deserve to know what that purpose is — and whether it constitutes an abuse of office,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri said.
“His Administration hasn’t hesitated to scrutinize political opponents’ use of classified materials, and he should be held to the same standard,” Smith said.
A letter to Remus’s attorney said she “has knowledge of why White House personnel began to visit with frequency Penn Biden Center in 2022, where classified materials, including materials related to Ukraine, were later discovered.”
“Therefore, your client is in a position to provide information related to whether, among other things, Joe Biden, as Vice President and/or President: (1) took actions to hide or cover up his improper possession of classified materials; (2) abused his office of public trust by knowingly using Executive Branch employees to attempt to ameliorate any political repercussions of having been discovered to have improperly possessed highly sensitive classified materials; or (3) knowingly maintained improper possession of classified materials related to countries from which his family received millions of dollars,” the letter stated.
Fox News said the others being interviewed are Anne Tomasini, director of Oval Office Operations; Anthony Bernal, a senior advisor to first lady Jill Biden’s office; Ashley Williams, a special assistant to the president and deputy director of Oval Office Operations; and Katharine Reilly, an advisor to the White House Chief of Staff.
Special Counsel Robert Hur was appointed by the Justice Department to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Comer has requested from Hur a list of the countries named in any classified documents found as well as a list of all people named.
