As more and more illegally-kept documents turn up in various unsecured places in President Joe Biden’s homes and offices, one cannot help but think of the criticism he gave former President Donald Trump for having classified documents in his possession. This may seem like a one-time occurrence; however, in 1977, he used also the improper possession of documents against others — particularly against then-President Jimmy Carter’s nominee for CIA director.
That event might come back to bite him.
So far, at least three batches of illegally-held documents, dating from when he was former President Barack Obama’s vice president, have turned up in Biden’s Washington, D.C., office, in the garage of his Delaware home and in the home itself.
The latest revelation was announced only days ago when multiple outlets, including Fox News and The New York Times, reported that the president’s attorneys confirmed that a third batch of classified documents had been discovered in Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.
The first batch of classified documents was reportedly “found” Nov. 2 — a week before the fall midterm elections — at Biden’s former office in the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement building in Washington, D.C., but neither the Department of Justice nor the National Archives bothered to mention this incident until January.
Then a second batch was found in Biden’s home in Delaware.
On Jan. 12, the president tried to wave off the questions about the lack of security for the documents saying that the ones found in his garage were “in a locked garage” and not “sitting out in the street.”
.@pdoocy: “Classified materials next to your Corvette?
What were you thinking?”President Biden: “I’m going to get a chance to speak on all of this, god-willing, soon…My Corvette’s in a locked garage, okay? So, it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street…” pic.twitter.com/1gVvJo0dfH
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 12, 2023
While Biden is quick to dismiss any criticism of his handling of classified and secret documents that he should not even have in his possession, he has been even quicker to use such possession against others.
Naturally, Biden attacked Trump in the aftermath of the unprecedented raid on the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago home last year.
“How that could possibly happen?” Biden said during an interview on “60 Minutes.” He added, “How anyone could be that irresponsible. And I thought, ‘What data was in there that may compromise sources and methods?’”
But his scolding of Trump is far from the first time that Biden has used possession of documents against his political opponents.
Biden also used illegal possession of documents to scuttle Jimmy Carter’s nominee for CIA director in 1977.
As his presidency was gearing up, Carter nominated Ted Sorensen to run the CIA. But, after questions rose over his hand in the coverup of the death of Mary Jo Kopechne from Ted Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick incident, Carter withdrew Sorensen’s name.
But the Kennedy problem wasn’t the only thing that torpedoed Sorensen’s elevation to the CIA’s top post. He was also assailed by Biden and others for the mishandling of classified documents.
During the time Carter had nominated Sorensen to the CIA, the nominee admitted to taking classified documents for a biography he intended to write of his longtime friend John F. Kennedy, The Intercept reported.
One of the outspoken detractors of Sorensen’s handling of documents was none other than then-Sen. Joe Biden.
Biden initially acted as if he was Sorensen’s friend and said he would help him through the confirmation process. But when Republicans honed in on Sorenson’s mishandling of classified material, Biden turned on a dime and used the accusations to knock Sorensen out of contention for the CIA post.
In fact, Biden dug up an affidavit that was never filed in court as a weapon against Sorensen. The former White House counsel later said that Biden’s abrupt shift and his subsequent throwing in with the Republicans to block the nomination was shocking.
“It was like being blindsided by a truck,” Sorensen said, describing the campaign to prevent him from taking the CIA position as the result of “many little dirty streams flow[ing] together to make one large one.”
Biden went farther than just helping Republicans find documents. He even suggested that Sorensen could even be prosecuted under the espionage act.
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“Quite honestly, I’m not sure whether or not Mr. Sorensen could be indicted or convicted under the espionage statutes,” Biden said, according to The Intercept. Then he asked “whether Mr. Sorensen intentionally took advantage of the ambiguities in the law or carelessly ignored the law.”
Naturally, after all that, Carter removed Sorensen’s name from contention for the CIA position. Sorensen later blasted Biden and said he should win the “prize for political hypocrisy in a town noted for political hypocrisy.”
In 1977 and 2022 both, Biden was shocked — shocked, I tell you — over the impropriety of documents sitting illegally in the hands of officials. But suddenly he’s not all that worried about it.
Looks like Ted Sorensen may be right right about the hypocrisy award that Joe Biden deserves to win.
