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Former President Jimmy Carter once found classified documents in his home, according to a new report, illustrating the protracted nature of the records control issues now plaguing President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Carter found the classified materials at his home in Plains, Georgia, and returned them to the National Archives, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press on Tuesday.
The disclosure comes as former Vice President Mike Pence also discovered classified records at his home and said that, like Biden, he had turned them over voluntarily after a search he had requested.
Carter, a Democrat, left office in 1981, but it’s unclear when the classified documents were discovered in his home and turned over.
President Jimmy Carter is seen on his last day in office, a turbulent period marked by negotiations to resolve the Iran hostage crisis
Some time after leaving office, Carter allegedly found the classified materials at his home in Plains, Georgia (above) and returned them to the National Archives.
A spokesman for the Carter Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com outside of business hours on Wednesday.
Carter himself signed the Presidential Records Act in 1978, but it did not apply to his administration’s records, only taking effect years later when Ronald Reagan took office.
Before Reagan, presidential records were generally considered the private property of the individual president.
Nonetheless, Carter invited federal archivists to help his White House organize its records in preparation for final deposit at his presidential library in Georgia.
The reported discovery of classified documents would have occurred at the Carter family home at 209 Woodland Drive, which was built by Carter and his wife Rosalynn in 1960, and is the only home the couple have ever owned.
January 19, 1981, was the last full day of Carter’s only term in the White House, and it was marked by a flurry of activity as his administration completed last-minute negotiations to resolve the Iran hostage crisis.
The fact that Carter, now 98, apparently took classified documents to Georgia decades ago only illustrates the longstanding problems surrounding the control and management of such records at the highest levels.
The reported discovery of classified documents would have occurred at the Carter family home at 209 Woodland Drive, the only home Carter and his wife have owned.
The 52 Americans were released the next day, in the early hours of the Reagan administration, but Carter stayed up all night as reports of the final negotiations came in.
“While Carter waited in the Oval Office all Monday night for news, servants in the White House family quarters packed up Carter’s last belongings,” a Washington Post weather report.
‘In the car park outside, workers were busy late into the night loading filing cabinets onto moving vans. Around the West Wing, staff assistants and secretaries were clearing out their drawers (one found an “urgent” memo she had lost three years ago) and taking photos,’ he added.
The fact that Carter, now 98, apparently inadvertently took classified documents to Georgia decades ago only illustrates the longstanding problems surrounding the control and management of such records at the highest levels.
The question took on new meaning in August, when an FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property recovered more than 100 classified documents he had refused to return to the National Archives.
About a dozen classified documents were found at Mike Pence’s home in Indiana
Joe Biden (left) and Donald Trump (right) are under investigation by special counsel for their handling of classified material.
Then, earlier this month, news broke that Biden had discovered and turned over classified documents found in his University of Pennsylvania think tank on November 2, ahead of the midterm elections.
A handful of additional classified documents, also related to Biden’s tenure as vice president in the Obama administration, were found at Biden’s Delaware home in searches later this month.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed special counsel to investigate both Trump and Biden regarding their handling of classified material.
Then on Tuesday, Pence’s attorney revealed that documents with classified marks were discovered last week at his former Indiana home.
George W. Bush’s office has said it handed over all classified documents upon leaving the White House, and Barack Obama’s spokesman declined to comment on whether searches were underway for such material.
Some legal experts have concluded that Biden’s clumsy handling of classified material could make it more difficult to prosecute Trump, though the cases appear to be very different.
Biden and his team alerted the Justice Department to the presence of the files and turned them over, while Trump spent months arguing over the circumstances of his own papers.
In the photo, some of the classified documents found in Mar-a-Lago, after the raid on August 8.
“Politically, he has effectively freed former President Donald J. Trump for hoarding secret documents,” wrote Peter Baker, the New York Times chief White House correspondent.
David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Obama, told Baker that while the actions of Trump and Biden were radically different, “in the court of public opinion” they can be perceived as the same.
Trump is seizing the moment to downplay his own behavior and insists he is being treated unfairly, telling supporters at a rally Tuesday that he was “hunted” by a “Trump-deranged” special counsel, while Biden ” white is being given.” glove treatment.’
The latest poll shows that American voters believe that both Biden and Trump are to blame, though most concede that Trump’s actions were more egregious.
Among those surveyed by ABC News and Ipsos, 77 percent said Trump acted inappropriately by handling classified documents, and 64 percent said Biden had.