Washington, US

Since last week, United States President Joe Biden has come under fire after his attorneys first acknowledged that he has been in possession of classified documents from when he served as the vice president in the Barack Obama administration from 2009 to 2017. However, over the week additional documents were found at Biden’s personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware, said his attorney in a statement on Saturday. This comes amid the ongoing investigation of why classified documents were kept at the incumbent US president’s home and office by the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, appointed special counsel. 

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How many documents have been found and where?

So far, there have been three different announcements about finding classified documents from Joe Biden’s time as vice president. The first set of documents was reportedly discovered by Biden’s personal lawyers back in November at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, DC, as per media reports. 

ALSO READ | Classified documents from Obama administration found in Biden's private office

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However, the White House later acknowledged the claims. At the time, Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, in a statement had said that they found the documents while “packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space” which Biden used sometimes as an office space between 2017 and 2020. 

“The White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified markings,” said Sauber. He added, “On the day of this discovery, November 2, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office notified the National Archives. The Archives took possession of the materials the following morning.”

Subsequently, days later, another media report emerged which said that a second of classified documents have been found, this time at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware. On Thursday (January 12), the incumbent president’s lawyers and the White House acknowledged that documents were found in December in his garage at his house in Delaware. 

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ALSO WATCH | Documents from Biden's Vice-presidency days found at Think Tank

The most recent disclosure took place over the weekend when the White House lawyer in a statement said that a total of six pages of classified documents were found during a search of Biden’s private library in his home in Delaware. 

“While I was transferring it to the DOJ officials who accompanied me, five additional pages with classification markings were discovered among the material with it, for a total of six pages,” said Sauber on Saturday. He added, “The DOJ officials with me immediately took possession of them.”

However, his statement did not address why the Biden administration waited for two days to give this update while the White House was already facing scrutiny for not disclosing the discovery of the initial documents found at the president’s Washington office. 

Notably, no documents were found at Biden’s second home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. This most recent development took the total number of documents marked classified or top secret found at Biden’s home and previous office to at least 20, out of which nearly 10 were found at the think tank in Washington, a federal law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told CBS, on Saturday. 

ALSO READ | US: Joe Biden's lawyers find more classified documents at his Delaware house, White House confirms

One of the biggest questions concerning the documents at the moment remains about their content which is not known since it is believed that much of the case would hinge on the sensitivity of the information. A report by CNN last week said that some documents found at Biden’s office included intelligence and briefing materials on “Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom”, however, nothing has been officially confirmed about the same. 

Who is the special counsel appointed to oversee the investigation?

In light of the recently found classified documents and Biden’s apparent mishandling of official records, on Thursday, Garland appointed special counsel Robert Hur a former US attorney from Maryland to oversee the Justice Department probes into the case. 

“This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law,” said Garland addressing the press, last week. 

ALSO WATCH | Former U.S. attorney named special counsel in Biden classified documents case

A special counsel is essentially an attorney appointed, in this case, Hur when the DOJ perceives it having a conflict or deems that it would be in the public interest to have someone outside of the government handle an investigation. 

What have Biden and the White House said?

The incumbent US president was first questioned about the discovery of the documents, on Tuesday (January 10) while he was attending a trilateral summit with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Mexico City. “I was surprised to learn there were any government records that were taken there to that office,” said Biden asserting that he did not know about documents being taken to his private office after he had left public service. 

Meanwhile, Biden’s attorney Sauber and the White House have previously said that they are “confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.” The White House attorney also said that Biden’s lawyer “immediately and voluntarily” handed over the documents found and will move to refer specific questions to the special counsel’s office moving forward. 

ALSO READ | Biden's legal team finds another batch of classified documents during a search

Subsequently, Biden told reporters at the White House that he was “cooperating fully and completely” with a Justice Department investigation, on Thursday. He added, “It’s not like they’re sitting out in the street…People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously”. Furthermore, Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, attempted to explain why they haven’t been forthcoming about the discovery of the documents. 

“The President’s personal attorneys have attempted to balance the importance of public transparency where appropriate with the established norms and limitations necessary to protect the investigation’s integrity,” said Bauer in a statement, on Saturday. 

He added that such considerations are important to avoid the public release of detail relevant to the investigation while it is ongoing as it might complicate the ability of authorities to obtain information “readily and in an uncompromised form.” This includes information about the witnesses, documents, and events involved in the case. 

Will Biden face legal action?

So far, it does not seem likely that the US president will face criminal charges as several reports citing experts have noted. As it would only be considered a crime by the Justice Department if the retention or removal of classified records is intentional and makes it an offence if a person “knowingly” removes classified documents and stores them in an unauthorised way. 

ALSO WATCH | 'They were inadvertently misplaced': Biden lawyer on the classified documents

Additionally, prosecutors would not pursue charges if it is proven that Biden accidentally or unknowingly retained documents. In a statement, Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, had earlier said that Biden’s lawyers appeared to have taken “immediate and proper action” after discovering the documents and that he trusts that the attorney general will “make an impartial decision” about further action. 

Furthermore, he also rejected the comparisons between the ongoing investigation and the probe into former US President Donald Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents called the two cases "apples and oranges," on CNN’s “State of the Union”. 

Republicans criticise Biden administration

House Oversight Committee Chairman and Kentucky Republican, James Comer, on CNN’s “State of the Union”, said, “We would never have known about the possession of the classified documents were it not for investigative reporting by CBS that somehow got a leak to determine that this had happened prior to the election.” He also criticised the Biden administration and its handling of classified documents and sought additional information on the ongoing investigation from National Archives and the DOJ. 

ALSO WATCH | White House dodges 'critical' questions about Biden classified documents

He added, "My concern is that the special counsel was called for, but yet hours after that we still had the president's personal attorneys, who have no security clearance, still rummaging around the president's residence looking for things." Comer also went on to call Biden's residence in Delaware a "crime scene" after the documents were discovered.

In the context of Biden's criticism of Trump for mishandling documents, the new chair of the House committee also said, "While he was doing this, he knew very well that he himself had possession of classified documents so the hypocrisy here is great."

Meanwhile, House Speaker and California Republican, Kevin McCarthy in an interview with Fox News said that the House will have a role in overseeing in the proceedings of the Biden investigation. Earlier this week, he had also said that there is no need for a special prosecutor and that the US Congress should be the one investigating Biden, reported ANI. 

ALSO WATCH | Gravitas: Biden in trouble for mishandling classified documents?

Along similar lines, during the Fox interview, he said, "They apply a special counsel, but how many agents do they apply to that and apply to President Trump as well?" and described it as "hypocrisy". 

Cases of alleged mishandling of documents: Biden and Trump 

Speaking of the alleged mishandling of classified documents, Biden’s case also came to light at a time when former US President Trump is facing a special counsel of his own as well as a federal criminal investigation for his handling of classified materials. Notably, both the former and the current US presidents should not have had classified documents in their possession as they are supposed to be handed to the legal custody of the US National Archives during a presidential transition period by the respective administration. 

However, many have pointed out the similarities between the two cases but highlighted the key difference in how easily the documents were returned to the authorities as well as the response to the incident. In Biden’s case, his attorneys and administration have so far claimed that the documents were promptly returned to the US National Archives upon their discovery. 

ALSO READ | 'I have done nothing wrong': Trump after DOJ appoints special counsel in Jan 6, classified documents cases

On the other hand, when classified documents were found at the former president’s private club and residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida there was a series of events which are still under investigation. Initially, National Archives requested documents that it believed were in Trump’s possession in May 2021 and tried to collect the documents for over a year without any success. 

It was later found that the 15 boxes of documents that Trump returned last year contained classified materials and consequently the matter was referred to the DOJ which issued a subpoena that sought the return of all the official documents. Subsequently, they also asserted that the former US president does not have any more documents.  

However, department officials accused Trump’s representatives of not fully complying with a subpoena prompting them to return to his Palm Beach estate with a search warrant. This was also amid concerns of possible obstruction and following the search, the agency recovered an additional 13,000 documents that were in the former president’s possession out of which at least 10 were marked classified. 

ALSO WATCH | Mar-A-Lago probe | Trump's admission in audiotapes contradicts his defence: Reports

It is this series of events that put Trump at a real risk of obstruction which special counsel Jack Smith is currently investigating. “When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House? These documents were definitely not declassified,” said Trump, late Monday, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, as per Al Jazeera. 

(With inputs from agencies)