WORLD NEWS | White House defends delayed, limited release of documents

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (AP) – The White House defied criticism Tuesday for its sporadic disclosure of classified documents and official records found at President Joe Biden’s home and former office, saying the White House may withhold information to protect a Justice Department investigation. .

Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House Counsel’s Office, told reporters that the White House is releasing information it deems “appropriate.” Risk” shared information is “incomplete”.

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“We strive to be transparent and informative to the media and the public while respecting the integrity of the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation,” he said.

The discovery that Biden is in possession of the documents complicates the federal investigation into former President Donald Trump, who the Justice Department said took hundreds of records marked classified when he left the White House in early 2021 and rejected several Demands for the records to be returned to the government have been coming for months.

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While the two cases are different — Biden, for example, is willing to turn over documents once discovered — it remains a political headache for a president who has pledged to disengage entirely from the Trump administration.

On Saturday, the White House revealed that Biden’s lawyers had discovered classified documents and official records on four separate occasions — at the Biden Center’s offices in Washington, Pennsylvania, on Nov. Ilmington’s home garage, and at the President’s Home Library on November 11 and 12.

Attorney General Merrick Garland last week appointed former Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert Hull as special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into the documents.

Questions still unanswered by the White House or Biden’s personal lawyers include exactly how many documents were found; whether there might be other documents there, what they contained and why the public wasn’t notified until months after their discovery.

Sams referred the questions to the Justice Department, insisting that neither the White House nor Biden’s personal lawyer knew about them. (Associated Press)

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