The FBI search of Joe Biden’s home for classified documents, briefly explained

The latest development in the investigation of the secret documents of the Department of Justice of President Biden arrived in Rehoboth, Delaware, on Wednesday: FBI agents searched the president’s beach house as part of an investigation into how sensitive documents were found in Biden’s private office in Washington and home. in Wilmington.

No classified documents were found during the search, Bob Bauer, the president’s personal lawyer, said in a statement. Bauer also said the FBI took some handwritten notes from Biden’s time as vice president, and some additional materials for review, just as agents did when they searched Biden’s home in Wilmington in January.

The search is similar to the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, but the two are very different. According to Bauer, the search was planned, and conducted with the “full support and cooperation” of Biden. This is consistent with reports that it is not required for the FBI to do its job. In Trump’s case, the FBI did its job without cooperation — and with a warrant.

The latest developments in the Biden case fit the image of a White House that has cooperated with the Justice Department from the beginning, and that has tried to avoid the perception that Biden was unaffected by the investigation. Partly to keep his distance, the Biden investigation is now being led by Robert Hur, a special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in January but who officially began work Wednesday.

That means two special counsels running parallel but separate investigations into the current and former president. Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith to investigate whether Trump violated the law by mishandling classified material (the FBI recovered hundreds of documents marked as classified from Mar-a-Lago) and obstructing justice by not cooperating with the investigation.

Whether either leader faces legal repercussions for advertently or inadvertently holding onto classified documents remains to be seen. Trump, as a private citizen, could be sued for not handling documents related to national defense, and possibly obstructing an FBI investigation. Biden may have violated the Presidential Records Act, but there was no penalty, as he also turned over the material. So far, the growing focus on Biden’s documents hasn’t damaged him politically, and it doesn’t seem to. As the campaign for the 2024 election begins, however, things may change.

A brief recap of the secret documents saga

Trump and Biden aren’t the only elected officials with classified documents at home. A representative for former vice president (and 2024 presidential candidate) Mike Pence told the National Archives, the agency responsible for keeping secret records after the presidency ends, that lawyers found “a small number of classified documents” in Pence’s Indiana. home in January. The National Archives then contacted the FBI, which worked with Pence’s legal team to hand over the documents.

The documents were not kept in a safe place but had been recorded in a box when the former vice president returned to Indiana. After the discovery, the document was moved to a safe place at Pence’s home until the FBI retrieved it, according to CNN. Pence, a private citizen who cooperates with officials, was not involved in the official investigation, but said he would cooperate if one was launched.

The saga of the Biden documents began when a bundle of classified material was found at the Biden DC think tank and office, the Penn Biden Center, on November 2, less than a week before the midterm elections. All 10 of the documents are from Biden’s time as vice president. The president’s lawyer told the White House Counsel’s office, which told the National Archives, which was collected the next day. According to CBS News, the FBI then searched the offices in mid-November. Nothing is announced until January.

Biden’s team also searched other locations for more potential documents in December, and a “small number” of additional records were found at Biden’s Wilmington home, including storage space in the garage. The FBI searched the house on January 20, and the White House announced it the next day. About six items were found and taken by the FBI, along with several other handwritten notes.

The investigation into Trump began, as my friend Andrew Prokop has explained, when the National Archives discovered that some sensitive information was missing. After requesting the files from Trump, some have been returned; others were not. That led to subpoenas (which seem to have been disregarded), warrants, raids, and ultimately, Smith’s investigation. At least 300 classified documents were recovered from Mar-a-Lago.

The investigation did not have much impact on the American people

Because Biden and Pence have discovered classified documents, and because of high-profile investigations currently underway, the National Archives has officially asked former presidents and vice presidents to review records of classified material or records from their positions.

The National Archives is responsible for storing these materials after an administration ends, in compliance with the Presidential Records Act — a law that has applied to the last six presidential administrations since Ronald Reagan’s presidency. The law did not apply to Jimmy Carter, who was president before Reagan.

The demand, the nature of the classification (proponents of greater government transparency have long argued that the federal government tends to overclassify materials), and the insularity of these legal issues to the Beltway all seem to contribute to the way Americans see this. investigation.

Still, Republicans in Congress and the conservative media have taken advantage of the slow development of the Biden document case to try to cancel some checks on the Trump investigation, by underestimating the severity of the Trump case, by lying to the two to show double standards, or trying to create a pretext for a congressional investigation. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has targeted the Penn Biden Center for investigation, and has used a search of Biden’s home as a pretext to request records of visitors or guests to the facility. (Some congressional Democrats are also demanding more information about Biden’s classified documents, though not attacking the president politically.)

Although recent polls by CBS News, CNN, and NBC News show that Americans say they are concerned about the discovery of the Biden document, the president’s approval rating has barely changed. Views on Trump’s response to the investigation remain negative, according to the same survey.

A Quinnipiac poll shows a similar landscape: A large majority think Biden mishandled documents and think the issue is serious enough to be investigated, but don’t think Biden should be held criminally responsible. “Roughly two-thirds of Americans are aware of and concerned about the misclassified documents found in President Biden’s personal home and office. But is it a criminal case? No,” Quinnipiac pollster Tim Malloy said in a release of the poll.

The poll shows that Americans also see differences between the Biden and Trump cases, and Biden’s cooperation with investigators. And, not surprisingly, the answer to the question of Trump and Biden’s actions in response to the investigation depends on whether you ask Republicans or Democrats about each.

The bottom line is that while the findings raise serious questions about the president’s security and treatment of secrecy, nothing will change the way Americans view Trump or Biden — at least not for now.