House Oversight Committee opens INVESTIGATION into Biden’s handling of classified files

The House Oversight Committee launched a pair of investigations Tuesday related to President Joe Biden’s handling of classified records recovered from an old office from late last year.

Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, sent a pair of letters to the White House Attorney’s Office and the National Archives and Records Administration, respectively, seeking more information on the matter.

The White House confirmed late Monday that Biden’s personal attorneys found “a small number of documents with classified marks” while cleaning the president’s former office at the Penn Biden Center on Nov. 2, 2022.

They were found in a locked cabinet at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, the statement revealed, and Biden’s lawyers notified the National Archives and the Justice Department later that day.

In his letter to the National Archives, Comer suggested there was “political bias” at play in Donald Trump’s handling of possession of classified documents, culminating in an FBI raid on his Florida property, in front of the more discreet situation with Biden.

Republican lawmakers have raised questions about the timing of the documents’ recovery shortly before the 2022 midterm elections and why it was not immediately made public, suggesting the motivation may have been political.

Comer criticized the National Archives for failing to “disclose” its receipt of the classified documents and Biden’s prior possession of them.

He demanded that the body provide all communications between itself, the White House, the Justice Department and Biden’s lawyers regarding the records.

“NARA’s inconsistent treatment of retrieving classified records held by former President Trump and President Biden raises questions about political bias at the agency,” the letter said.

In the letter to White House counsel Stuart Delery, Comer points to previous reports that at least some of the 10 recovered classified files contained “highly confidential information obtained from intelligence sources.”

“The Committee is concerned that President Biden has compromised sources and methods with his own mishandling of classified documents,” the second memo states.

Comer requested, among other items, all documents recovered from Biden’s old office; a list of people who had access to the office; documents and communications from Biden’s lawyers about the files; and the security clearance status of the president’s lawyers.

“The committee hopes that President Biden will receive the same treatment under the law given that he kept classified documents in his unsecured office for several years with access to an unknown number of people,” the letter to Delery says.

‘President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, also planned to share an office with a person affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, raising questions about who else had access to these highly confidential documents due to President Biden’s “totally irresponsible” actions. .

The classified documents include intelligence memos and records on Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Iran, according to CNN. All pages ranked were reportedly from 2013 to 2016.

But most of the documents recovered were intimate family records, including pages discussing funeral arrangements for Biden’s son Beau.

Once they realized the nature of the classified files, Biden’s lawyers also turned over boxes of personal files out of an abundance of caution.

Biden said Tuesday that he is “fully cooperating” with the investigation in his first comments on the matter after ignoring questions from reporters.

The president said he was “surprised to learn that there were government records that were brought to that office.”

He said he takes the investigation “seriously” and said he did not know the nature of the documents.