[ad_1]
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (AP) President Joe Biden’s decision last week to allow the FBI to search his Delaware home led him to earlier discoveries of classified documents at his home and former office Then face new negative attention and embarrassment.
But aides hope it is a legal and political consideration in the long run as he prepares to seek re-election.
Read also | Microsoft will invest $10 billion in OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT.
FBI agents conducted a high-profile, nearly 13-hour search of the home of incumbent President Wilmington, the latest political black eye for Biden, who has promised to recover after the tumultuous tenure of his predecessor Donald Trump. Office etiquette.
But through his actions, Biden is doing more than deferring to federal investigators assigned to investigate the records’ findings.
Read also | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he does not support Sweden joining NATO.
The president aimed to show that, unlike Trump, he never intended to withhold classified material — a key distinction that experts say could reduce the risk of criminal liability.
“In order to move this process forward as quickly as possible,” he was granted full access to the home, his lawyer said.
“If I were a lawyer and I was representing the President of the United States, I wanted to say, ‘I’m fully cooperating, I do care about showing transparency to the American public, I do take that seriously,’ and I think that’s what I would give as well. recommendations,” said Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department national security official.
That’s not to say she approves of him handling the papers.
“I think he was wrong to put those documents there,” she said.
“It shows a misstep at the end of the administration,” when Biden was coming to the end of his vice presidency under Barack Obama.
The classified material was first discovered by Biden’s personal attorneys on Nov. 2, a week before the midterm elections, while cleaning out an office Biden had used at the Biden Center in Pennsylvania, Washington.
Since the initial discovery, Biden’s team has been accommodating with the investigation, even if they have not been fully transparent in public.
They did not acknowledge the first discovery before the election, though they quickly notified the National Archives of the discovery, returned the documents the day after they were found, and coordinated the subsequent search and discovery with the Justice Department.
They also did not impede interviews with staff, including Kathy Chung, an executive assistant to Biden when he was vice president, who helped oversee the packing of boxes that were brought to the Biden Center in Pennsylvania.
She felt some responsibility given her position, but she had “absolutely” no idea that classified documents were being packaged, according to a person familiar with her thinking.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Biden himself has said he is surprised the documents are in his hands. Frustrated with all the focus, he told reporters last Thursday: “There’s nothing there.”
“I think you’ll find there’s nothing there.”
It all fits with one theme: Biden and his aides insist the mishandling of documents was not intentional.
The question of intent is crucial in terms of Biden’s possible legal exposure: Federal law does not allow anyone to store classified documents in an unauthorized location, but only if someone is found to be “intentionally” from an appropriate location.
Still, welcoming the FBI’s search could backfire if investigators uncover some evidence of a crime.
Last week, agents seized another shipment of classified-marked items, as well as some handwritten notes and materials from Biden’s tenure as vice president and senator.
And that doesn’t include the documents already turned in by Biden’s lawyers. As the investigation continues, agents also have the option to search the Biden Center in Pennsylvania and another Biden home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Criticism of Biden’s handling of the matter has come from both Democrats and Republicans. Senator Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the president should be “embarrassed by the situation.”
“I think he should have a lot of regrets,” added Senator Joe Manchin of Virginia. Even Biden’s own lawyer called it a “mistake.”
Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to use their newfound power in the House of Representatives, where they regained a majority this month, to investigate Biden’s handling of the documents and hope to take advantage of the probe.
“It is disturbing that classified documents have been improperly stored in President Biden’s home for at least six years, raising questions about who may have reviewed or had access to classified information,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman James R. · Comer (James Comer) wrote. When asking about visitor logs at Biden’s residence.
Trump and some of his supporters have been more vocal, claiming that Biden’s mishandling of classified documents was more serious than Democrats’ sanctimonious accusations against Trump.
The ex-president is sure to emphasize the charge vigorously as he campaigns to regain the White House.
The investigation into Trump has also focused on classified documents that ended up in the home.
In that case, though, the Justice Department issued a subpoena for the return of documents Trump refused to return, then obtained a search warrant and seized more than 100 documents during a dramatic raid of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August.
Federal agents are investigating possible violations of three federal laws, including those governing the collection, transmission or loss of national defense information under the Espionage Act.
In 2016, when the FBI recommended against criminal charges for classified emails Hillary Clinton sent and received on a private server while secretary of state, then-FBI Director James Comey said , the Justice Department — in choosing which cases to turn over to the last century — has been looking for evidence of criminal intent, signs of disloyalty to the United States, retention of troves of classified documents or any obstruction of justice.
A year ago, a Clinton lawyer voluntarily gave the FBI a USB drive containing some 30,000 emails from her time as secretary of state.
It’s unclear whether surrogates in the Biden investigation have moved beyond the question of intent.
The White House did not answer key questions, including how classified information from his tenure as vice president ended up in his Delaware home.
But given the sensitive politics surrounding it, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to lead the investigation.
Garland declared in response to a question on Monday: “We don’t have different rules for Democrats or Republicans. … We apply the law in every case in a neutral and nonpartisan way. That’s the fact that we’ve been doing, and that’s what we’re doing on the issues you mentioned.”
A key test of the limits of Biden’s strategy revolves around whether the president will agree to be interviewed by federal investigators.
White House officials have so far declined to say whether he would do so, or under what conditions.
There could still be consequences beyond criminal prosecution for any staff member found to have mishandled classified documents, including impact on security clearances required for national security work.
Meanwhile, Biden and his staff are trying to refocus the media and public on his agenda.
White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said she would not answer questions about the investigation at her daily briefing, instead referring most questions to the Justice Department, White House counsel or Biden’s personal attorney. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
[ad_2]
Source link