On Sunday it became known that top-secret files had once again been found in Biden’s private rooms. The US Department of Justice seized six documents with confidential markings from Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, according to Biden’s attorney Bob Bauer. Some of it came from Biden’s time as Vice President, some from his time as a Senator.
The almost 13-hour search had already taken place on Friday and included “all work, living and storage rooms” in the house. In the past few weeks, confidential documents have repeatedly appeared in Biden’s private rooms – in Delaware and Washington. The public only found out about some of the finds when the media reported about them. Attorney General Merrick Garland hired a special counsel to investigate the incidents.
“There is nothing”
Biden’s lawyer now emphasized that the investigators had “unrestricted access” to the house during the search on Friday. All kinds of documents such as handwritten notes, files, folders, memorabilia, task lists and schedules, some of which went back decades, were made available. Biden himself said on Thursday that he was “fully cooperating” with the Justice Department. “I think you’ll see there’s nothing there,” he said when asked by reporters at an appointment in California.
For the President, the revelations are politically highly sensitive. It is not permitted to store confidential government records privately after leaving office. The National Archives are responsible for this in the USA. The find of documents is also very explosive for Biden because former Republican President Donald Trump caused a scandal with a similar case in the summer: after leaving the White House, Trump kept large amounts of confidential government documents in his private estate in Florida on.
The FBI searched the property in August and confiscated various classified documents. Biden criticized Trump’s handling of the documents at the time. In Trump’s case, Garland had also appointed an independent special investigator for the politically sensitive investigation.
Biden’s years in office
ORF correspondent Christophe Kohl takes stock of the two years in office of US President Joe Biden.
Trump sneering
Trump reacted with gloating over the weekend. On his online platform “Truth Social” he wrote to Biden and his team: “You created this document chaos yourself by targeting me so badly – and I did nothing wrong.”
Although Biden’s and Trump’s case are very similar at first glance, there are key differences. Unlike Biden, Trump’s case was preceded by a dispute with the National Archives. It tried for months to get papers from Trump’s tenure. Trump’s lawyers finally handed over documents. But officials rightly suspected that Trump or his team continued to withhold documents. The number of documents also differs significantly. According to the FBI, among the thousands of documents confiscated from Trump are around 100 documents marked as secret.
balance sheet overshadowed
Nevertheless, Biden is more in trouble. The Democrat always emphasized his image as a clean man, especially with regard to Trump. Biden has just completed the first half of his first term in office, in which he launched multi-billion dollar packages for infrastructure, the economy and climate protection. The pandemic is ebbing, the labor market is picking up again.
However, the document affair clearly overshadows the balance sheet. In addition, the parliamentary landscape has changed significantly with the congressional elections. The new majority of opposition Republicans in the House of Representatives is likely to make it much more difficult for Biden to govern. Politically significant reforms, such as abortion or gun laws, are unlikely to stand a chance in Congress now.
Chief of Staff leaves
It is still unclear whether Biden actually wants to run for the White House again in two years. Most recently, the 80-year-old repeatedly hinted at this option, but the document affair is now also raising doubts among Democrats. Vice President Kamala Harris could also compete – and then possibly against Trump.
To make matters worse, Biden also loses his long-serving chief of staff, Ron Klain. According to the New York Times, Klain apparently plans to leave after the President’s Feb. 7 State of the Union address. The 61-year-old was already chief of staff to former Vice President Al Gore and to Biden himself when he was vice president under President Barack Obama. The post of chief of staff is one of the most important in the White House. He is the senior political officer, driving the President’s political agenda and ensuring that suitable staff are hired.
