House Panel Launches Investigation Into Biden’s Classified Document Stash

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) during a hearing in Washington on July 27, 2022. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The House Oversight Committee is opening an investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified records from his time as vice president, following the discovery of sensitive materials in an insecure closet at a think tank.

Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a Jan. 10 statement on social media that he’s launching the probe; he has demanded that the White House and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provide documents and information related to their handling of the Biden records—including the classified documents themselves.

“The Committee is concerned that President Biden has compromised sources and methods with his own mishandling of classified documents,” Comer wrote in a letter to White House counsel Stuart Delery (pdf), while pointing out that Biden has previously called the mishandling of presidential records “totally irresponsible.”

A “small number” of classified documents were found on Nov. 2, 2022, in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington as Biden’s lawyers were clearing out the offices, according to a statement on Jan. 9 by Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president.

Sauber said the documents were in a “locked closet” at the think tank Biden used after he served as vice president and that the records were turned over to NARA a day after they were found.

For purposes of the committee probe, Comer requested that the White House provide a raft of information relating to the handling of the retrieved documents. He requested all the documents retrieved from Biden’s personal office at the Penn Biden Center, as well as all internal documents and communications regarding the recovered materials.

He’s also demanding a list of all the people who had access to Biden’s personal office at the think tank and all documents and communications between the White House and the Department of Justice (DOJ) or NARA regarding the classified document find.

Comer separately wrote to NARA’s Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall (pdf) to raise the question of “political bias” at the agency over what he described as “inconsistent treatment of recovering classified records” held by Biden and former President Donald Trump.

“NARA learned about these documents days before the 2022 midterm elections and did not alert the public that President Biden was potentially violating the law,” he wrote.

“Meanwhile, NARA instigated a public and unprecedented FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago—former President Trump’s home—to retrieve presidential records.”

Comer also said this disparate treatment “raises questions about political bias at the agency.”

Officials at NARA and the White House didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

President Joe Biden speaks during a Cabinet meeting in the White House on Jan. 5, 2023. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

‘2-Tiered Justice System’?

News of the document discovery has led to comparisons to Trump, who kept some allegedly classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida that were seized in an FBI raid.

Trump, who’s being investigated by the Justice Department in connection with the incident but hasn’t been charged, said he declassified the materials before he left office.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, who assigned a special counsel to probe Trump over his document stash, has assigned a U.S. attorney in Chicago to review Biden’s materials and how they ended up at Biden’s office at the think tank.

Republicans have argued that Trump has been treated more harshly over his document stash and that the DOJ and the mainstream media are handling Biden with kid gloves.

“Is the White House going to be raided tonight?” Comer said in a Fox News interview. “Are they going to raid the Biden Center? I don’t know.

“This is further concern that there’s a two-tier justice system within the DOJ with how they treat Republicans versus Democrats ... certainly how they treat the former president versus the current president.”

The Republican lawmaker noted that in his research after the FBI’s search of Trump’s home in August, he found that “every president had accidentally packed documents that may or may not be considered classified,” saying, “but they weren’t raided.”

‘Immediate and Proper Action’

Democrats have defended Biden amid the fallout from the document find, pointing to the small number of documents found at the Biden-linked think tank compared to a larger volume held by Trump. They’ve also highlighted the Biden lawyers’ cooperation with NARA and quick submission of the classified materials after their discovery, compared to a drawn-out fight to get Trump’s documents, including by subpoena.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement that attorneys for Biden “appear to have taken immediate and proper action to notify the National Archives about their discovery of a small handful of classified documents so they could be returned to federal government custody.”

“I have confidence that the Attorney General took the appropriate steps to ensure the careful review of the circumstances surrounding the possession and discovery of these documents and [will] make an impartial decision about any further action that may be needed,” Raskin said.

Trump, who previously said the FBI’s seizure of documents from his home was an act of retribution by his political foes, commented on the Biden document find.

“When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?“ he asked on social media. ”These documents were definitely not declassified.”

A law enforcement officer stands outside Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 8, 2022. Giorgio Viera/AFP/Getty Images

Biden ‘Surprised’

Biden, who in September 2022 called Trump’s handling of classified documents “totally irresponsible,” said on Jan. 10 that he was “surprised” that any sensitive government records had been taken to his former personal office.

“People know I take classified information seriously,” Biden said at a North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico on Jan. 10.

He defended how the discovery of the documents was handled, insisting that his lawyers “immediately” called NARA and turned over the materials to the agency.

It’s unclear when Biden became aware of the discovery of the documents.

Legal experts who spoke to The Epoch Times gave contrasting views on the document find, with some insisting there’s no legal difference between Trump and Biden in terms of possible violations of laws that require classified documents to be turned over to NARA to be stored securely.

Some said a key difference is the status of the documents, with Trump insisting that he declassified the documents, although that remains unclear pending investigation. By contrast, the vice president—as Biden was at about the time the documents were placed at the think tank—doesn’t have that power.

‘No Legal Difference’

Derek Jacques, an attorney at The Mitten Law Firm, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that any removal of classified documents poses a problem for any elected official, be it Trump or Biden or anyone else.

“It doesn’t truly differ from Trump’s document stash at Mar-A-Lago,” Jacques said. “While there is the implication that storing them in your private residence might seem less secure than an office in a think tank, there is no legal difference between the two.”

From a legal standpoint, there will need to be an investigation into the documents found at Biden’s office, he said, noting that such a probe would also include a determination as to the potential damage to national security interests.

Aron Solomon, chief legal analyst at Esquire Digital, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that in Trump’s case, there was an intent to “take and hide” documents that had classified markings—including ones marked “top secret”—and that the former president refused to return the materials, even under the power of subpoena.

Another difference, according to Solomon, is in the sheer volume of documents seized at Mar-a-Lago compared to the ones at Biden’s former office.

“Under the Biden fact set, as we know it today, there was a comparatively very small amount of classified information in documents President Biden had after serving as vice president,” he said.

FBI agents seized 103 documents marked classified at Mar-a-Lago, including some marked top secret.

However, Jacques insisted that the difference in the volume of documents is mostly optics.

“From a legal standpoint, it may not make much of a difference on the volume of documents; however, the ‘top secret’ classification does matter,” he said.

“The issue, again, reverts back to whether or not Trump declassified any of the materials seized at his home.”

While Trump has insisted that he did declassify the documents, details around the declassification process and status of the documents remain unclear.

Biden, by contrast, didn’t have the authority to declassify documents. This fact is “material,” Jacques insisted.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said on Jan. 10 that he sees a double standard in how Biden and Trump are being treated by the media, in the context of classified documents.

“If then-Vice President Biden took classified documents with him and held them for years and criticized former President Trump during that same time that he had those classified documents, and only after it was uncovered did he turn them back, I wonder why the press isn’t asking the same questions of him,” Scalise said.