Nine boxes of documents found at President Joe Biden’s Washington, D.C., think tank and shipped to the Boston office of attorney Patrick Moore haven’t been reviewed for classified material, according to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
In a letter dated Tuesday, Acting Archivist of the United States Debra Steidel Wall answered specific questions asked by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) about NARA’s knowledge of the discovery of Biden records in Boston from his time as vice president.
Wall provided answers to questions about how and when NARA learned about the transportation of Biden records to Moore’s Boston office, whether the Archives notified the inspector general or the Department of Justice (DOJ) about the discovery of these records, and whether any of the records included pseudonyms and email addresses used by then-Vice President Biden, and more.
The number of boxes taken from Boston had not been previously disclosed publicly by NARA.
Biden’s attorneys began reviewing materials at the Penn Biden Center in October 2022, where they discovered 10 classified documents on Nov. 2, 2022. The next day, the lawyers informed NARA that nine boxes of documents had been transported to Boston.
On Nov. 4, 2022, the archives referred the matter to the Office of Inspector General and informed it “that some boxes had been moved to Boston,” the letter states. However, NARA doesn’t know the specific dates when they were moved.
The 10 classified documents were discovered just two days before the November midterm elections, but their existence was not disclosed publicly until nearly two months later.
‘NARA Has Not Reviewed the Contents of the Boxes’
In their Feb. 24 letter, Johnson and Grassley asked NARA if any Biden records discovered at Moore’s Boston office contained pseudonyms or email addresses associated with then-Vice President Biden.“NARA has not reviewed the contents of the boxes found at Mr. Moore’s Boston office,” Wall wrote in response, revealing that the documents haven’t been reviewed for potentially classified or sensitive materials.
NARA did not collect the boxes from Moore’s office until Nov. 9, 2022. According to the letter, the agency transported them to its nearest facility, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, at the request of the DOJ.
It is unclear if the DOJ has reviewed the boxes for classified materials. The Epoch Times contacted the DOJ for comment.
Wall informed Johnson and Grassley that NARA doesn’t know of any other locations where Biden may have stored records from his time as vice president. Under U.S. law, presidential and vice presidential records must be turned over to NARA for preservation when a president leaves office.
“NARA only has direct knowledge about boxes that were located at the Penn Biden Center and at Mr. Moore’s office in Boston,” Wall wrote. “NARA has informed DOJ that, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA), any Presidential or Vice Presidential records that DOJ obtains from any other location must be returned to NARA no later than the conclusion of their investigation.”
Investigations
During a Senate Intelligence hearing on Wednesday, Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) expressed frustration over the intelligence community’s refusal to grant congressional access to classified documents recovered from locations associated with Biden, Trump, and former Vice President Mike Pence.Warner argued that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s stance of denying the committee access to classified documents “that we have every right to see in terms of our oversight role” doesn’t “pass the smell test.”
“This trust relationship has to go two ways,” he said, referring to the committee and intelligence community relationship.
This attempt came in response to a journalist’s question about Biden’s previous comments regarding classified materials found at Trump’s Florida estate in August 2022, which Biden referred to as “totally irresponsible.”
Biden also shifted the blame to staffers who he said had not done a thorough job of going through paperwork from his former office.
“But one of the things that happened is that what was not done well is, as they packed up my offices to move them, they didn’t do the kind of job that should have been done to go thoroughly through every single piece of literature that’s there,” he said.
Former Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert Hur has been appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland as the special counsel to oversee the DOJ’s inquiry into the documents. Hur’s mandate is to determine whether Biden or those associated with him violated the law in their handling of the documents.
