President Joe Biden’s decision to allow the FBI to search his home in Delaware last week exposed him to negative attention and embarrassment following the discovery of classified documents at his home and former office. But it is a legal and political calculation that aides hope will benefit as they prepare for re-election.
The stunning, nearly 13-hour search by FBI agents at the president’s Wilmington home is the latest political black eye for Biden, who has vowed to restore propriety in office after his predecessor, Donald Trump.
But by doing so, Biden did more than simply comply with federal investigators tasked with seeking discovery of the tapes. The president aims to show that, unlike Trump, he has never withheld classified material – a key difference that experts say reduces the risk of criminal liability.
White House spokesman Ian Sams said on Monday that Biden’s own lawyers had called in the FBI to conduct the search. “This is a voluntary proactive offer by the president’s personal attorney to the DOJ to get access to his home,” he said, adding “how seriously” Biden is taking the issue.
Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department national security official, said, “If I’m a lawyer and I’m representing the president of the United States and I want to show, ‘I’m fully cooperative, and I want to create transparency. for the American people, and I do this with seriously, ‘I think that’s the advice I’d give too.
This does not mean that he approves of his handling of the document.
“I was wrong that they had those documents there,” he said. “It shows the lapses at the end of the administration,” when Biden completed his term as vice president under Barack Obama.
Biden’s personal attorney first discovered the classified material on Nov. 2, a week before the midterm elections, when they were cleaning out the office Biden used at the Penn Biden Center in Washington. Since that initial discovery, Biden’s team has taken a proper approach to the investigation, although it has not been publicly transparent.
He did not acknowledge the first discovery before the election, although he quickly notified the National Archives, returned the documents a day after they were found and coordinated subsequent searches and discoveries with the Department of Justice.
He also didn’t hold back from interviewing staffers, including Kathy Chung, Biden’s executive assistant when he was vice president, who helped oversee the packing of boxes brought to the Penn Biden Center.
He felt responsible, but was “absolutely” unaware of the secret documents he was packing, according to people familiar with his thoughts. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Biden himself said he was surprised the documents existed. Last Thursday, frustrated with the focus, he told reporters: “It’s not there.”
Everything fits the theme: Biden and his aides maintain that the document was not intentional. As far as Biden’s legal exposure is concerned, the question of intent is crucial: Federal law does not allow anyone to store classified documents in an unauthorized location, but the only crime that can be prosecuted is when someone “knowingly” removes the documents. the right place.
Still, welcoming the FBI’s search could backfire depending on what it finds. Agents last week seized additional items with classified markings, and some of Biden’s handwritten notes and materials from his positions as vice president and senator.
This is in addition to documents already provided by Biden’s lawyers. Agents may also choose to search the Penn Biden Center and Biden’s other residence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, as the probe continues. Sams declined to say whether Biden would be subject to additional searches, referring the matter to the DOJ — which has asked the White House not to publicize the search in advance.
Criticism of Biden’s handling of the matter came from Democrats as well as Republicans. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the president should be “ashamed of the situation.”
“I think he should have a lot of regret,” added Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va. Even Biden’s own lawyer called it a “mistake”.
Republicans, meanwhile, are seeking to use their newfound power in the House, where they regained their majority this month, to investigate the handling of the documents and hope to leverage the investigation.
“It is concerning that classified documents have been improperly stored in President Biden’s home for at least six years, raising questions about who has reviewed or had access to classified information,” said House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Tenn. to request a visitor log to Biden’s home.
In response to Comer’s request for copies of documents taken from Biden’s home, the White House counsel’s office on Monday said it no longer had them. He said the White House will “accommodate legitimate oversight interests,” while also “respecting the constitutional and statutory separation of powers and duties of the executive branch in general and the White House in particular.”
“This is not ‘legitimate’ transparency from President Biden who once said he has the most transparent administration in history,” said Oversight Committee spokeswoman Jessica Collins, who added that the Republican panel would use “every tool possible” to get answers.
Trump and some of his supporters have been outspoken, admitting that Biden is guilty of mishandling classified documents rather than Democrats sanctimoniously accusing Trump. The former president is sure to strongly assert these allegations as he campaigns to capture the White House.
Trump’s investigation also focuses on classified documents completed at home. In that case, however, the Justice Department issued a subpoena to return documents that Trump had denied, then obtained a warrant and seized more than 100 documents during a dramatic August search at Florida’s Mar-a-Lago. . Federal agents are investigating potential violations of three federal laws, including one that regulates the gathering, transmission or loss of defense information under the Espionage Act.
In 2016, when the FBI recommended against criminal charges against Hillary Clinton over secret emails sent and received through a private server while she was secretary of state, FBI director James Comey said that the Department of Justice – chooses the case to be pursued. century ago – has appeared for evidence of criminal intent, indications of disloyalty to the US, retention of vast amounts of classified documents or any effort to obstruct justice.
It’s unclear whether agents in the Biden investigation have progressed beyond questions about intent. The White House has yet to answer key questions, including how classified information from the vice president’s tenure may have ended up in the Delaware home. But Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to lead the investigation because of the sensitive politics surrounding it.
Garland announced on Monday, in response to a question: “We don’t have different rules for Democrats or Republicans. … We apply the facts according to the law in each case in a neutral and nonpartisan way. That’s what we always do and what we do in the case that you mean.
One major test of the limits of Biden’s strategy is the question of whether the president would agree to an interview with federal investigators if requested. White House officials have so far declined to say whether or under what conditions that would be done.