President Joe Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ) reportedly permitted the personal attorneys of the president to look for classified documents at separate places without security clearances or any (Federal Bureau of Investigation) FBI agents present.
Some critics have wondered why Biden's personal lawyers began looking for classified papers. Some have also questioned why the president’s legal team continued to look through his house on Thursday for classified documents, even after the appointment of a special counsel earlier in the day.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the initial search, which was authorized by the DOJ, was conducted by people with no security clearances looking for material that could have been classified.
“Mr. Biden’s legal team prepared to search his other properties for any similar documents, and discussed with the Justice Department the prospect of having FBI agents present while Mr. Biden’s lawyers conducted the additional searches,” the report stated.
“Instead, the two sides agreed that Mr. Biden’s personal attorneys would inspect the homes, notify the Justice Department as soon as they identified any other potentially classified records, and arrange for law-enforcement authorities to take them,” the report added.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), House Oversight Committee chairman, believes that no one would have heard about the documents discovered at the Penn Biden Center or his home if CBS News had not first broadcast the story. The White House claimed total transparency when the scandal was revealed.
The White House has not yet provided an explanation for what prompted Biden's personal lawyers to search Biden's home as well as the Penn Biden Center for classified documents.
On Thursday, five other classified documents were found minutes after the White House revealed that one document had been discovered on Wednesday inside a storage area near the garage of Biden’s Wilmington home, the New York Times reported Saturday. Justice Department employees retrieved the document on Thursday, which was found on Wednesday by Biden's legal team, who had no security clearances.
Biden's personal attorney, Bob Bauer, stated Saturday that the single document led Biden's lawyers to five other classified documents. They were discovered even though “Biden's personal legal team did not have security clearances, so when they saw the one-page document with classification markings, they cleared the area and did not look further.”
As of now, 25 classified documents have been found by the president’s personal lawyers, and some are classified.
Jonathan Turley, attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School, asked on Monday why Biden employed his personal lawyers to look for classified information.
“It's strange Biden did not use security officers or the FBI to conduct further searches,” he wrote in the New York Post Monday. “The president has a host of people who regularly handle classified material. So why use the lawyers?:
“The answer appears the same as in the case of Hillary Clinton’s emails: control. Using private counsel allows Biden to raise attorney-client privilege. Trump also used counsel, but eventually, the FBI raided his home to search and remove not just classified material but documents found in boxes with that material.
“While that attorney-client privilege can be overcome under a ‘crime/fraud exception,’ it adds a level of initial protection. It also allowed Biden to control the discovery and initial record of the discovery of classified information.”
News tweeted:
“The Biden administration has failed to comply with the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into President Joe Biden’s mishandling of top secret documents after promising the ‘highest standards of transparency’ in U.S. history.”
