Joe Biden kept classified materials in multiple locations, including the garage of his Delaware home, which led to a special counsel appointment by the Justice Department to investigate these breaches in protocol. It went silent shortly after that, where even some legal observers wondered if the FBI was intentionally bungling the probe. That investigation has reared its ugly head again, making the Biden team incredibly nervous.
With the president’s approval ratings now a dumpster fire, his base support bleeding, and the economy not looking to turn the corner, all this re-election operation needs is another public relations nightmare over classified documents. Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted Donald Trump over his alleged mishandling of sensitive materials.
The Biden White House criticized the former president until Joe was engulfed in a classified document trip-up. Aides and advisers are worried that Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report will contain compromising and embarrassing details about Joe Biden’s fumbling with classified materials. Axios highlighted the layer beneath this emerging story: the tension between Joe Biden and his attorney general, Merrick Garland, who signed off on this special counsel and the one looking into this son, Hunter. Biden has reportedly equated Garland to ex-FBI Director James Comey. No one expects Biden to be charged, but the political damage could be devastating, especially now since there is no room for errors and gaffes of this nature (via Axios):
Biden aides don't expect criminal charges in the case, but they believe Hur's report will include embarrassing details — possibly with photos — on how Biden stored documents.
In late 2022, Obama-era classified documents were discovered in Biden's garage at his home in Delaware and in a private office he used.
Biden aides believe that Donald Trump, Biden's likely foe in November, will try to use Hur's report to create equivalency with the felony charges Trump faces related to his keeping classified documents after his presidency.
Biden aides believe Hur's probe is done and that his final report could come any time — even as soon as this week — but the final timing is unclear.
[…]
Even if there are no criminal charges, Biden aides expect the report's details to be politically damaging.
Biden has defended storing documents from his vice presidency in his garage, saying: "By the way, my Corvette is in a locked garage, so it's not like they're sitting out on the street."
Any photos of those storage practices could cause a political storm similar to what happened after the release of photos of Trump storing documents at Mar-a-Lago, including in a bathroom.
[…]
Garland's appointment of Hur added to the tension between Biden's team and Garland that's been fueled by Garland's appointment of the special counsel investigating Hunter Biden, feelings that Garland was too slow to investigate Trump over Jan. 6, and other frustrations.
[…]
Some in Biden's orbit have unflatteringly compared Garland to former FBI Director James Comey and his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server.
Recommended
With this development, in some ways, the 2024 election is a reboot of 2016, as the Democratic Party nominee has run afoul of adhering to protocols concerning classified materials. For Trump, well, he’ll have his day in court. What he did post-presidency with his documents were unforced errors of epic proportions, which would have caught Smith’s investigators' attention. The date for this trial is in limbo since the question of presidential immunity has not been decided by the DC Court of Appeals. As a result, it put Trump’s federal election interference trial on indefinite hold and could delay this case, too. I’d be more critical of Trump in this regard if the liberal media didn’t bend over backward to bash the former president and then say mishandling classified materials isn’t a big deal when federal agents discovered Biden’s files. They also treated it like Watergate, which it wasn’t.
But whatever happens, expect it to neutralize the attacks against Trump and his classified document circus and further consolidate Trump’s support among the GOP base. We don’t care—and it only feeds the narrative that a politicized DOJ is attacking the Democratic Party’s political enemies, which it is.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member