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Biden’s Classified Docs Case Gets Worse After It’s Revealed Who Will Be Investigating — The Republic Brief
(republicbrief.com)
by Jeff Miller
6–7 minutes
In an ongoing investigation into how Vice President Biden obtained classified documents from a private Washington, D.C. office used for University of Pennsylvania work, the Justice Department is employing a Trump-era U.S. Attorney.
The Penn Biden Center’s office was found to have around ten classified documents relating to Ukraine, Iran, and the UK by Biden’s personal lawyer before he closed up the office in early November, just prior to the midterm elections. Upon finding the documents, the lawyer notified the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
In recent weeks, U.S. Attorney John Lausch Jr., one of Donald Trump’s few remaining officials, has briefed Attorney General Merrick Garland numerous times about the ongoing investigation. In November 2017, President Trump appointed Lausch as the Northern District of Illinois attorney.
“The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives,” White House special counsel Richard Sauber told Fox News on Monday. “Since that discovery, the President’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.”
Fox News noted further:
The discovery echoes revelations last year that Trump had housed a trove of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home after leaving office. The FBI ultimately raided his residence to recover some 300 classified documents.
Trump himself was quick to make the comparison on social media Monday, and a number of other Republicans called for more information about the Biden documents.
“Why didn’t the ‘Justice’ Department announce the Highly Classified documents found in the Biden Office before the Election?” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“Biden’s documents are HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL, many pertain to UKRAINE, where Hunter was ‘raking in the dough,’ and FUNDED BY CHINA, which gave $55 Million to Biden, through Penn, and probably had easy access,” Trump continued.
In addition, Donald Trump Jr. wondered, “When will the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team storm one of Biden’s many vacation homes bought and paid for somehow by a lifetime of being a humble public servant?”
In a similar vein, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who served as White House physician during Trump’s presidency, asked the same question.
“It’s just been discovered that Biden had HIGHLY CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS that were improperly stored in one of his private offices. INCREDIBLE! WHERE is the FBI? WHERE is the dramatic raid? We have two systems of justice in this country: one for them and one for us,” he declared on Truth Social.
“Under the Biden Administration, the Department of Justice and National Archives have made compliance with the Presidential Records Act a top priority,” said Kentucky Rep. James Comer in a statement on Monday. “We expect the same treatment for President Biden, who has apparently inappropriately maintained classified documents in an insecure setting for several years.”
CNN added:
The classified documents were dated between 2013 and 2016, according to the source familiar. They were found in three or four boxes also containing unclassified papers that fall under the Presidential Records Act.
The vast majority of the items in the office contained personal Biden family documents, including materials about Beau Biden’s funeral arrangements and condolence letters, the source told CNN. It is not clear if the boxes with classified documents contained personal materials.
Upon opening the manila folder labeled “personal,” the Biden lawyer discovered some classified documents. Afterward, CNN cited a source as saying the attorney called the National Archives and closed the file.
“After making contact with NARA, Biden’s team turned over several boxes in an abundance of caution, even though many of the boxes contained personal materials, the source said,” CNN explained.
Last September a former top spy said the FBI came up short in its raid on the Trump estate at Mar-a-Lago.
John Ratcliffe, who Trump appointed as Director of National Intelligence (DNI), said on Fox News that the FBI “didn’t find what they were looking” for, based on his assessment.
Ratcliffe, who represented Texas’s 4th district from 2015 to 2020 told Fox, “I was a former federal prosecutor, United States attorney. Let me tell you what this is about. Good prosecutors with good cases play it straight. They don’t need to play games.” His statement was in reference to DOJ officials. “They don’t need to shop for judges, they don’t need to leak intelligence that may or may not exist.”
In opposing the appointment of a special master to review allegedly classified documents, the Justice Department “tells you that the government didn’t find what they were looking for,” Ratcliffe added.
“There weren’t nuclear secrets” on Trump’s property, he continued, “and they’re trying to justify what they’ve done. They’re not playing it straight before the American people. I think that that’s going to play out.”
However, Ratcliffe did not provide details regarding his claims, according to The Epoch Times.
In addition, the outlet noted:
Since the Aug. 8 raid on Mar-a-Lago, neither the DOJ nor the FBI has revealed what materials agents were trying to find. A heavily redacted affidavit used to obtain the search warrant last week provided few details, but it said prosecutors believed there were allegedly classified documents being kept in Trump’s Florida residence.
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