It affirms “cooperating (r) fully with the Ministry of Justice.” US President Joe Biden is in crisis after the discovery of confidential documents at his private residence in Wilmington, Delaware.
“I take confidential documents very seriously,” the Democratic leader briefly responded to the press.
However, this information, disseminated by various American media, including the New York Times, you run the risk of putting the occupant of the White House in great difficulty. The context is not favorable either: if the Democratic Party managed to win the Senate after the mid-term elections, the Republicans once again preside over the House of Representatives. A new political board that could motivate the Republican Party to open an investigation into these revelations.
• What are these documents found in a residence of the president?
“A small number” of classified documents from Joe Biden’s vice-presidential days were found at his private residence in Wilmington, Delaware, the White House said Thursday.
By Monday, he had already acknowledged that a dozen such documents had been discovered at the Penn Biden Center, a Washington think tank where Joe Biden once had an office. Some of these documents are summary notes relating to Ukraine, Iran or the United Kingdom and are classified as defense secret according to CNN.
This time, the newly discovered documents were in the garage of his Wilmington home and in an adjoining room, presidential attorney Richard Sauber said.
• How does the Republican Party react to this discovery?
Republican leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday called on the US Congress to open an investigation into confidential documents found at the private residence of President Joe Biden.
“Congress must investigate this case,” he told the press, denouncing “a new misstep by the Biden administration.”
“Do you remember how the left reacted when President Trump took home the so-called ‘confidential’ documents? They’re terribly quiet today,” said House Republican Jim Jordan, a Donald Trump stalwart.
• What is the Democratic Party’s response to these revelations?
The Democratic Party has so far not ruled on the issue. The same goes for the White House spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, who refused to answer questions from journalists… unlike the director in question.
President Joe Biden responded that he would speak “soon, God willing” on the issue. “Also, my Corvette is in a closed garage. (…) It’s not like it’s on the street,” added the 80-year-old Democrat, referring to his favorite car, a bottle-green convertible dating from the 1980s. 1960.
• Do we blame Biden for the same thing as Trump?
These revelations are reminiscent of the Trump precedent. Leaving the White House, the former Republican president had taken entire boxes of documents with him. After being asked to return them, he returned fifteen boxes in January 2022.
After examination, federal police estimated that he likely had others at his luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence. FBI agents conducted a search there on the basis of a warrant for “withholding classified documents” and “obstructing a federal investigation,” and seized about thirty more boxes. An intense legal battle was then opened to determine the nature of the seized documents, which could be classified, personal or even declassified. To slow down the process. But Donald Trump remains under threat of federal indictment.
Nevertheless More than 325 documents were seized from the Republican billionaire against just over a dozen from Joe Biden according to CNN. In addition, the current president has claimed to cooperate with the authorities unlike his predecessor. Ultimately, it was Joe Biden’s lawyers who alerted the National Archives to the discovery of these documents, while the National Archives first approached Donald Trump’s lawyers. There are no signs of Joe Biden obstructing a federal investigation, unlike Donald Trump.
In the U.S, a 1978 law requires US presidents and vice presidents to transmit all their emails, letters, and other working documents to the National Archives.
Article 18 section 2071 of the United States Code establishes that any person who knowingly conceals or destroys official documents is exposed to fines and up to three years in prison, as well as to the disqualification from holding public office, as well as a sanction of ineligibility.
It will be necessary to establish whether or not the US president intentionally left these documents at his home or in his former office. “We are confident that a careful investigation will show that these documents were inadvertently moved,” presidential attorney Richard Sauber said in a statement.
A job that will have to study Robert Hur, the independent special prosecutor appointed to investigate this case.
Source: BFM TV
