The National Archives has referred to the Justice Department a case involving President Joe Biden and alleged classified documents from his time as vice president found in one of his private offices.
CNN’s Evan Perez offered details of the news on Monday’s The Lead. Host Jake Tapper said “several classified documents” from Biden’s time as vice president “were found by his personal attorneys in one of his private offices in November last year.”
Tapper asked the network senior justice correspondent to break down the breaking report. Perez stated:
These were documents the White House says that were found by the current president’s attorneys in November as they were closing out an office that the former vice president, Biden, of course, had set up an office with the University of Pennsylvania at the Penn Biden center here in Washington.
They were closing out these offices when they found what they say were fewer than a dozen documents that were labeled as classified. Now, a number of these documents were also subject to the presidential records act, and according to the White House, these were now turned over to the National Archives, which has asked the Justice Department to look into it.
Perez reported Attorney General Merrick Garland has asked the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago to investigate the documents as part of a “standard” process.
“This is akin to the process that happened after the National Archives asked the Justice Department to look into those classified materials that were recovered from Mar-a-Lago, from former President Trump’s residence,” Perez added. “So, it is a process that the Justice Department recently went through, obviously, with Donald Trump.”
Perez said the difference between the documents found in Biden’s office and Trump’s case is attorneys for Biden reported the presence of the documents.
The alleged number of documents labeled classified found in Biden’s office is reportedly fewer than a dozen.
“The White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified markings,” said Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden. “The documents were discovered when the President’s personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. The President periodically used this space from mid-2017 until the start of the 2020 campaign. On the day of this discovery, November 2, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office notified the National Archives. The Archives took possession of the materials the following morning.”
“The discovery of these documents was made by the President’s attorneys,” Sauber’s statement added. “The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives. Since that discovery, the President’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.”
Watch above, via CNN.
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