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Washington (AFP) – The White House announced Saturday that five additional pages of classified documents were found at President Joe Biden’s family home in Delaware.
He said in a statement that these pages, which date back to Biden’s tenure as Vice President Barack Obama, were found in a room adjacent to the garage after White House attorney Richard Sauber visited the house Thursday.
The attorney said in the statement that he had gone to the stately home in Wilmington, Delaware, to oversee the bringing to justice of a first set of classified documents after they were found in the home on Wednesday.
Sauber recalled that during their search of the house on Wednesday, the president’s personal lawyers found documents marked “secret” in this room next to the garage.
Because they did not have the necessary permits to view this type of document, the lawyers did not continue their mission and reported the matter to the Ministry of Justice, according to the White House.
A 1978 law requires US presidents and vice presidents to transfer all emails, letters, and other business documents to the National Archives after they leave office.
Sauber, who holds a permit that allows him to view the classified documents, indicated that upon his arrival at the house he discovered five more pages, explaining that the representatives of the Ministry of Justice who accompanied him confiscated them “immediately.”
The pages are added to other documents found in Biden’s former office at the “Ben Biden Center” for research in Washington, and they were also handed over to the judiciary.
On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed an independent attorney general to investigate the case.
The White House was quick to announce that documents had been found in Wilmington, but it only acknowledged last Monday that documents had been discovered in Biden’s former office in Washington, two months after they were found.
The issue is very sensitive for Biden, who is considering running for a second presidential term.
Biden’s critics have taken advantage of this ongoing series of revelations, to say that he has not been transparent and forthright.
That has drawn comparisons to the case of former President Donald Trump, who is also under investigation by a special prosecutor for allegedly storing hundreds of classified documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, and allegedly obstructing the administration’s efforts to retrieve them.
But Sauber stressed that Biden returned the documents “immediately and voluntarily” when they appeared.
Biden’s defenders say this is a far cry from the actions of Trump, who is under investigation for his handling of classified documents.
Despite the vast difference between the two facts, there is no escaping the fact that this complex situation will negatively affect Biden.
“I take classified documents and classified materials very seriously,” Biden told reporters Thursday. “We are cooperating fully with the Department of Justice.”
To date, there is no indication of criminal wrongdoing. The White House says that the failure to return these documents after Biden left the Obama administration was a lack of attention.
The Republican opposition, which has been weakened by internal disputes, sees this as an opportunity to regain some momentum. And it intends to investigate the matter, especially through a House committee headed by Republican James Comer, who said in a statement that “there are many questions that need answers.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that he had appointed an independent attorney general to investigate this Biden case. “I have signed a document appointing Robert Hoare as a special attorney,” Garland said, “with the authority to investigate any person or entity who may have violated the law” in this case.
The Biden team said that if it was found that errors were made in dealing with its official documents, the administration would immediately correct the errors.
© 2023 AFP