On November 2, 2022, just one week from the 2022 midterm elections, President Joe Biden's attorneys were informed classified information had been found at his private office in Washington D.C. -- the same unsecured office he used during his time as the former vice president and shared with Hunter Biden.
Earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly claimed she only became aware of the scandal when it broke in recent news reports.
REPORTER: "Did you know?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 17, 2023
KJP: "No I did not know!"
REPORTER: "When did you learn about the documents found at the Penn Center...?"
KJP: "When your team was doing a story on it." pic.twitter.com/v2T7mAUR51
Now, the Washington Post is reporting the Department of Justice and White House worked to keep the brewing scandal quiet.
In mid-November, in a communication that has not previously been reported, a senior official in the Justice Department’s national security division wrote a letter to Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal attorney, asking for his cooperation with the department’s inquiry. The Justice official asked specifically that Biden’s legal team secure the materials from the Penn Biden Center and refrain from further reviewing them or other relevant documents that might be stored at different locations, according to the letter, the contents of which were shared with The Post.
Early on, Biden’s attorneys and Justice Department investigators both thought they had a shared understanding about keeping the matter quiet. But they had very different reasons.
The White House was hoping for a speedy inquiry that would find no intentional mishandling of the documents, planning to disclose the matter only after Justice issued its all-clear. Federal investigators, for their part, typically try to avoid complicating any probe with a media feeding frenzy.
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We now know the answer to his question:
"These documents were discovered on November 2nd...this didn't become public until...more than two months later. Why was the public not informed while the White House prepared its PR response for two months?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 11, 2023
KJP: "I'm not going to go beyond what the president shared yesterday." pic.twitter.com/7pFg7thQyG
Meanwhile, the White House has denied visitor logs exist for Biden's Wilmington, Delaware home -- where additional classified materials were found in the garage. The Secret Service has a record of visitors and plans to share it should Congress ask.
The U.S. Secret Service is prepared to offer names of individuals who visited President Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, home if requested by Congress, Fox News has learned.
The White House continues to insist that there exists no formal visitor log for the personal residence where two troves of classified documents were found.
While the White House has not kept a formal list, the Secret Service does collect information on guests with regular access to the home.
Retention of the names of those vetted by the Secret Service depends on a variety of factors, including proximity to the president and the nature of the background check.
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