House Republicans, Democratic Senate Intel Chair Demand Answers on Biden’s Handling of Classified Docs
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
House Republicans and the Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee are demanding answers after classified documents were found in one of President Joe Biden’s private offices.
Monday, it was revealed attorneys for the president discovered 10 sets of documents marked classified at his office at the University of Pennsylvania. Biden and his attorneys reported the find to the National Archives which referred the matter to the Department of Justice.
Some have claimed the matter of former President Donald Trump’s mishandling of classified materials has been complicated by the revelation of the documents found in Biden’s office. Trump’s home in Florida was raided by the FBI last summer and a trove of classified documents was retrieved.
It is believed Trump will make a case any potential prosecution of him would be political if he is charged and Biden is not, although Trump’s lawyers had signed a certified letter saying Trump had no more documents — which turned out to be false.
With both men now accused of mishandling classified material, Republicans in the House wasted no time jumping on Biden.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) demanded to know on Monday evening what Biden was doing “with classified information in his possession.”
Tuesday, House Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said he would use his power to demand answers from the White House and the National Archives.
“President Biden has been very critical of President Trump mistakenly taking classified documents to the residence or wherever and now it seems he may have done the same,” Comer stated. “How ironic.”
One Senate Democrat announced Tuesday he intends to treat the cases of the former and current presidents with equal gravity. Senate Intelligence Committee chair Mark Warner (D-VA) said he expected to be briefed about both situations in a Tuesday statement.
“Our system of classification exists in order to protect our most important national security secrets, and we expect to be briefed on what happened both at Mar-a-Lago and at the Biden office as part of our constitutional oversight obligations,” Warner said.
