Several classified documents from President Joe Biden’s time as vice president were discovered last fall in a private office, Biden’s attorneys acknowledged Monday. Attorney General Merrick Garland has asked the US attorney in Chicago to investigate the matter, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN, and congressional Republicans are also taking notice. Biden’s lawyers say they found the government materials in November while closing out a Washington, DC-based office – the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement – that Biden used as part of his relationship with the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an honorary professor from 2017 to 2019. Fewer than a dozen classified documents were found at Biden’s office, another source told CNN. It is unclear what the documents pertain to or why they were taken to Biden’s private office. Federal officeholders are required by law to relinquish official documents and classified records when their government service ends.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/09/politics ... index.htmlAfter the discovery, Biden’s lawyers immediately contacted the National Archives and Records Administration, which started looking into the matter, the source said. Biden’s team cooperated with NARA, which later came to view the situation as a mistake due to lack of safeguards for documents, the source said.
In November, NARA sent a referral to the Justice Department to look into the matter, a source with knowledge of the situation told CNN. The US attorney in Chicago, John Lausch Jr., is investigating. Lausch was one of the rare Trump-era holdovers who wasn’t asked to resign after Biden’s inauguration. He was appointed by Trump in 2017 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate. Illinois’ two Democratic senators said in 2021 that they wanted Lausch to remain at his top post “to conclude sensitive investigations,” though they didn’t reveal what probes he was working on.
Republicans are already asking questions. 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,” said GOP Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who is set to become the House Oversight Chairman. “How ironic.” Comer pointed out that the National Archives falls under his committee’s jurisdiction for oversight but said when they, while in the minority, sent NARA questions related to former Trump, NARA referred Republicans to the Justice Department.
This gives Republicans more ammo to use in investigating Biden and his family in the lead up to 2024. Trump is probably salivating over this.