Congress finally gets access to Biden, Trump and Pence’s classified documents

Joe Biden’s administration has allowed some members of Congress access to classified documents found in the homes of Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Mike Pence, according to a new report Tuesday.

The “Gang of Eight” began accessing the documents last week, Punchbowl News reported, in a majority victory for the legislature.

The Justice Department originally blocked Congressional access after special counsel Jack Smith was assigned to examine documents found at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach home, arguing it was protecting his investigation.

Later, Robert Hur was assigned as special counsel to investigate the documents found in Biden’s Wilmington home dating back to his time as vice president.

But lawmakers overseeing intelligence matters were pushed back, arguing that they are examining the protection of US secrets and assessing the impact of the documents’ possible disclosure.

Now a select group of lawmakers with access to the nation’s top security secrets will be shown the documents held by Trump, Biden and Pence.

The “Gang of Eight” consists of the leaders of each of the two parties from both the Senate and House of Representatives – Democrat Chuck Schumer, Republican Mitch McConnell, Republican Kevin McCarthy and Democrat Hakeem Jeffries.

It also consists of the chairmen and leading minority members of both the Senate and House intelligence committees — Democrat Mark Warner, Republican Marco Rubio, Republican Mike Turner, and Democrat Jim Himes.

Warner and Rubio spearheaded the pressure campaign to get President Biden’s administration to give lawmakers and staff access to the material.

Federal law requires that all presidential records — especially those with secret markings — be turned over to the National Archives at the end of a presidential administration.

Both Trump and Biden face federal investigations for having classified documents in their private homes.

Pence also found some classified documents at his Indiana home in February. He immediately notified authorities and had federal agents search his home.

Secret documents found in Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington – above is the entrance to his Delaware residence

On November 2, Biden’s personal attorney discovered about 10 documents with secret markings on Nov. 2 at the Penn Biden Center, his private University of Pennsylvania think tank.

The material dates back to the Obama administration. The National Archives and Justice have been informed of the find.

But the crisis only came to public attention in January after CBS News reported their existence, drawing criticism for the Biden administration, which has promised transparency.

Days later, more classified documents were discovered at Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware. Additional searches found more secret documents – about two dozen in all.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre publicly took a beating for saying on multiple occasions that the search for documents was over, only to reveal additional searches that found additional documents.

The lack of disclosures, misstatements and Biden’s own testimony when asked about the matter contributed to the impression that the White House had not been forthcoming on the matter.

Administrative officials countered that the records and other federal agencies were immediately notified.

Meanwhile, Justice Department investigators have put together a timeline of Trump’s case and the actions they believe the former president took:

• May 2021: National Archives realizes some documents from Trump’s presidency are missing
• December 2021: Archive requests the documents from the former president
• January 2022: Archives receive 15 boxes of material stored at Mar-a-Lago, some of which were found to contain classified material
• February 2022: The case is referred to the Ministry of Justice
• May 2022: After several back-and-forths with Trump’s legal team, the Justice Department issues a subpoena for additional records they believe are in the former president’s Florida home
• Investigators believe that after that subpoena arrived, storage boxes, including some containing classified materials, were moved from a Mar-a-Lago storage area, so Trump personally examined some of them
• June 2023: Three FBI agents and a DOJ attorney go to Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the additional material. They were given a single Redweld envelope, double-wrapped with tape, containing the documents, according to later court documents. That envelope contained 38 records with classification marks, including five documents marked confidential, 16 marked secret, and 17 marked top secret.
• August 2023: DOJ applied for a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, citing “probable cause” that additional presidential documents and classified information documents were left in Trump’s Florida home. Court documents show that the original search warrant application showed that officers believed “evidence of obstruction will be found at the property.”
• August 8, 2023: FBI agents raid Mar-a-Lago: They recover 18 documents marked top secret, 54 marked secret, 31 marked confidential, and 11,179 government documents or photos that had no classification marks.

Trump has criticized the federal investigation into classified documents found in his possession.

At Mar-a-Lago last week, defending himself against his New York indictment related to a hush money payment to a porn star, the former president launched into a lengthy, detailed defense about why he doesn’t think he committed a crime by his White House records in his Florida home.

The Presidential Records Act says that all material from a presidential administration belongs to the federal government and must be turned over to the National Archives.

“There is no crime under the Presidential Records Act,” Trump said.

‘That’s not the point. We negotiated in good faith a proper way to return some or all of the documents I brought with me openly and in plain sight to Mar-a-Lago from our beautiful White House, just as virtually every other president has in the past done.’

He condemned the raid in August, which showed he had more documents on hand, despite a Justice Department subpoena to return all of the material he was carrying at his Florida home.

“As president, I have the right to release documents and the process is automatic. If I bring them, it’s automatic. Declassified,” Trump claimed, which is false.