This story about Joe Biden’s classified document scandal giveaway keeps getting worse, as do the defenses of this reckless behavior. When former president Donald Trump got his home raided for reportedly storing classified materials, the Left hoped for an indictment despite the lack of legal standing. That was more of a Hail Mary legal heave than Russian collusion, but now that play is dead since Biden left classified documents all over the place and at multiple unsecured locations for years. I stand corrected in one aspect: the vice president can declassify materials, but does that make Biden look any better? No—he did what Trump was accused of, so the ‘two separate rules’ dichotomy that we often see with these stories is more explicit.
Spencer has been tracking this circus most closely, with stories about how the FBI searched the Penn Biden Center offices in mid-November and found classified materials but never bothered to announce it. A search warrant was never issued, as Biden’s people cooperated fully. Now, the National Archives is chirping that they were “ordered” to keep Biden’s classified doc fiasco hidden from the public.
Given how this scandal keeps having the fire stoked, despite repeated claims that searches and reviews have concluded, George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley is now raising questions about how seriously the Department of Justice is handling this situation. Biden earned himself a special counsel investigation, which Turley notes has allowed the FBI, Biden’s lawyers, and others to create total havoc regarding the chain of custody regarding these documents. There’s also a massive cache of documents stored at the University of Delaware—when will the FBI review those files? Turley, who is not a firebrand conservative, added that it seems the DOJ is doing everything it can to bungle this probe (via NY Post):
The FBI issued the “all clear” on its latest search of one of President Biden’s residences. The announcement came with the first day of special counsel Robert Hur on the job at the Justice Department.
Hur may find that the Biden legal team feels that “all clear” extends beyond the latest search. It could be challenging to make a criminal case after how the investigation has been handled.
At every stage, the FBI has adopted an approach that would compromise or complicate any criminal charge.
The FBI left the home untouched for over three months after classified documents were found in Biden’s former office in DC. While it was recently learned that the FBI did go to that office a couple weeks later, it reportedly elected to have personal counsel for the president conduct searches on the residences. Biden then spent weeks traveling to these residences after the FBI waited to search the premises.
The private searches clearly went through these documents and moved (and potentially organized) material. Despite being given the opportunity to conduct and record the initial searches, the FBI will now have to rely on the accounts of private counsel on how these documents were originally left, including any visible classification markings.
[…]
The FBI allowed uncleared private counsel to tread all over these scenes, creating a nightmare of chain of custody.
It then waited weeks to send its own agents to places like Rehoboth Beach as counsel and the Bidens frequented the property.
It is also not clear how the FBI conducted these searches. Reports recently indicated that Biden included classified information in notebooks that were seized in earlier searches. If true, that is a nightmare for investigators because it would require agents to do more than simply look for classified documents with markings at the beginning of paragraphs and tops of pages. They would have to actually read material to determine if Biden incorporated classified material.
[…]
The result for Hur is a case that is messier than Biden’s garage. It is hard to see how this investigation would yield a solid criminal case absent confirmation that Biden worked off clearly classified material. If so, he showed both intent and knowledge of unlawful possession during prior years. It would also make his categorical denials of any knowledge appear more sinister and incriminating.
Recommended
A Democratic president who was ushered into power under shady pretenses of the 2020 election is now engulfed in a classified documents fiasco and is getting a ton of help from a corrupt federal law enforcement agency that often runs interference for members of his party. I will be one hundred percent not shocked if that’s the case. It’s why Biden smiles when asked about this scandal. He knows he’s already in the clear, and if all else fails, he could out-Trump Trump by pardoning himself.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member