Jim Jordan: White House has multiple questions to answer about second ‘batch’ of Biden classified files
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House Judiciary Chairman Representative Jim Jordan furiously demanded answers from the Biden administration Thursday morning after a second batch of classified files linked to the president were found.
These classified files, from Joe Biden’s vice presidency, have been discovered in a ‘storage space’ at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, the White House revealed Thursday.
The latest finding comes just days after the first set of confidential files were found in a D.C. office for his think tank and as Biden officials dodged questions about whether they were trawling other records.
‘Where is the raid? Where are the photos? Where is the special prosecutor? What is a batch? What does that mean? We know it’s more than one, is it two documents or 2000 documents? What is the location? Jordan fired back during a morning interview on Fox & Friends.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has launched a litany of questions he says the Biden administration must answer about the classified files found.
He asked ‘where are the photos?’ apparently in response to federal agents taking photos of classified branded documents recovered from Donald Trump’s resort
Republicans have been quick to compare the relatively low-key treatment of the Biden files to the FBI’s high-profile raid on Donald Trump’s Florida mansion, which released dozens of top-secret and classified records that had been stored. incorrectly to the National Archives.
“The biggest question,” Jordan said, was why the initial 10 documents revealed earlier this week have not been released until now, even though they were found on November 2, 2022.
“The press was all over this when he was President Trump,” Jordan said.
“So again, I think the double standards are obvious and then the tons of questions, I think all Americans have.”
Texas Rep. Troy Nehls called for a search warrant to be written and executed against Biden.
We need to get into their offices and see if there are any more documents. You found one batch, you find a second batch, there could be more out there. Let’s get a special prosecutor for him,” Nehls said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was harassed by reporters during her Wednesday briefing shortly before the article was published, insisting that Biden takes classified documents and their withholding “seriously.”
President Joe Biden said he was “shocked” that classified documents were found in his former office at the Penn-Biden Center, a think tank in Washington, DC.
On Wednesday, reporters asked Jean-Pierre if Biden had investigated whether he could have taken other documents to any other office he has or to his homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth, Delaware.
She refused to give an answer. ‘I’m just not going to talk about this. I’m going to let the process continue. It is an ongoing process. So I’m just not going to talk about this from here. It is wiser and more appropriate for my colleagues on the White House Council.
Earlier in the week, it was reported that in November 2022, the president’s lawyers discovered documents in his former office at the Penn-Biden Center in Washington, DC, which he used after his time as vice president.
The documents were discovered in a locked cabinet while the lawyers were clearing out the office to move out.
The White House acknowledged that Biden’s lawyers had found 10 documents with classified marks in a former office at a Washington, D.C. think tank, the president has been peppered with questions about the discovery.
The classified documents that appeared to be from the Obama administration were found on November 2, before the midterm elections, although news of the documents did not break until months later.
The DC office building where 10 classified documents were found in a former office of now-President Joe Biden
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not provide further details at a press conference about classified documents found in a think tank office previously used by President Joe Biden:
US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who sanctioned the FBI search warrant on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, is being asked to do the same for President Biden and his handling of documents classified.
Senator Lindsey Graham said Wednesday on Fox News that Attorney General Merrick Garland should appoint a special attorney to handle the matter, just as he has done with the Trump investigations.
“Garland, if you’re listening, if you thought it was necessary, Attorney General, to appoint special counsel with respect to President Trump, then you should do the exact same thing with respect to President Biden when it comes to handling classified information.” said the South Carolina Republican.
Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri reacted to the news simply by tweeting the words: “Special Counsel.”
“My question is regarding the first batch, what did Merrick Garland know when they were discovered on November 3 and he declared special counsel for Trump on November 18?” Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., told DailyMail.com.
“Obviously, he had some knowledge, and yet he picked special counsel, he announced it, you know, he had this whole pitch and no mention. What did he know?
Waltz also questioned “who knew” about the documents between Nov. 3 and Nov. 8, the day of the midterm elections.
“The timing is incredibly suspicious,” Waltz continued. “It has to be one of the biggest coincidences in the world, otherwise politics was involved.”
Biden was asked about the documents at the top of his trilateral news conference Tuesday in Mexico City, joined by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The president said he was “shocked” to discover that classified documents were discovered in a box in a locked cabinet. But he said his lawyers “did what they should have done.”
“They immediately called the Archives, they immediately called the Archives, they turned it over to the Archives,” the president said.
The documents were discovered on November 2 and delivered to the Archive on November 3.
Armed Secret Service agents stand outside the driveway of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida, as the FBI searched part of his home for files. classifieds taken from the White House.
Former President Donald Trump says Biden’s home should be ‘raided’ like his Mar-a-Lago property for classified documents.
Garland appointed special counsel to oversee the Trump investigation on November 18.
Biden said he did not know the contents of the documents and that his lawyers suggested that he not ask.
“And we are fully cooperating with the review,” the president added.
Republicans have criticized a “double standard” by saying Trump’s possession of classified documents made him the target of a raid at Mar-a-Lago in August.
Biden’s team has pointed out that in the Trump case, the FBI knew that Trump had not fully complied with a subpoena from the Files to return all classified documents. In the Biden case, the Archives was unaware of the missing documents.
Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the newly appointed chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, contacted Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and said Biden’s withholding of the documents put him in a “Potential violation of laws protecting national security, including Espionage.” Act and Act of Presidential Records.’
White House documents and classified records will be stored at the National Archives in Washington, DC in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.