A number of Republican politicians who tried to dismiss the discovery of classified materials during an FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago are now claiming to be outraged by a similar situation that has arisen with the discovery of classified materials by Joe Biden’s attorneys at a DC think tank.
It’s a sudden change of heart that reveals the very political side of Washington politicians’ response to allegations of mismanagement by one of their own.
The responses from the GOP in the wake of Mr Biden’s attorneys turning over the documents have ranged from accusations of double standards to full-on howls of “treason” from supporters of former President Donald Trump, who unlike Mr Biden fought for months with the National Archives over possession of the documents in question and did not report their presence voluntarily.
Those obvious differences were of little concern to Republicans like Ronny Jackson, congressman from Texas.
“It’s just been discovered that Biden had HIGHLY CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS that were improperly stored in one of his private offices. INCREDIBLE! WHERE is the FBI? WHERE is the dramatic raid?” he asked, with the obvious answer being that FBI raids are predicated on the assumption that agents will find what they are looking for. There’s no reporting or any other evidence (yet) to suggest that Mr Biden retained any documents at his personal residences, or that any other documents were retained beyond those already handed over.
Just a few months ago, Mr Jackson seemed to believe that the FBI raiding the home of a president, current or former, amounted to the agency being used as “secret police”.
A number of lawmakers, including Congressman Andy Biggs, spread a conspiracy without a shred of evidence, claiming that the think tank where the papers were discovered, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, has received $54m (about) from the Chinese Communist Party. The think tank was asked by a right-wing group to explain a number of donations originating from China, but there’s zero evidence that the CCP was involved in any way and no accusations of wrongdoing have been made by credible sources.
Mr Biggs also claimed that Mr Biden “stole” the documents in a tweet sent from his account; the congressman is no stranger to spreading fibs and is a top supporter of the 2020 election denier gospel “2,000 Mules”, a documentary by Dinesh D’Souza that concocts a conspiracy about a supposed massive fraud effort which allegedly cost Donald Trump the 2020 election.
Another Republican to chime in was Congressman James Comer, incoming head of the House Oversight Committee. Mr Comer previously said that the Mar-a-Lago investigation regarding classified documents hoarded by Mr Trump in defiance of the National Archives would “not be a priority” for his committee.
“I don’t get involved in a lot of the drama from the last administration,” he told CNN in November.
He was more than willing to weigh in on the latest drama, however, and released a statement: “President Biden has stated that taking classified documents from the White House is ‘irresponsible.’ Under the Biden Administration, the Department of Justice and National Archives have made compliance with the Presidential Records Act a top priority. We expect the same treatment for President Biden, who has apparently inappropriately maintained classified documents in an insecure setting for several years.”
Finally there was Roger Stone, the longtime ally and confidante of former President Donald Trump, who swung for the fences with his own take on the issue and insisted without proof that China’s government had access to the classified materials. Mr Stone notably did not have the same outrage when Mr Trump was accused of revealing highly classified information to the Russian ambassador in 2017.
Declaring Mr Biden guilty of “treason” (punishable by death), the GOP operative added: “Joe Biden - Retained classified documents after he was no longer Vice President housed in his office at a foundation funded with $54M from the Red Chinese thus the Chinese had access to these classified national security secrets.”
Few details are actually known about the contents of the documents found at the DC think tank. In total, the trove contained less than a dozen documents marked classified, with some marked “top secret”, Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber said in a statement on Monday (9 January).
About 10 papers were found, including intelligence briefings and briefing memos related to the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Iran, according to CNN. Beyond that, not much is known about the contents of the documents.
On Wednesday, new reports emerged that Mr Biden’s attorneys had found another set of government records dating back to the Obama administration at a second location connected to the president.
NBC News was first to report that Mr Biden’s legal team had discovered at least one document bearing classification markings at a location the president’s attorneys were searching. CNN later reported that the discovery was made during follow-up searches conducted after the initial documents were found at the think tank.
The follow-up search led to his lawyers discover “additional documents of interest to federal officials reviewing the matter” of the initial document find, according to the television network.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has thus far declined to provide reporters with details regarding the discovery of documents at the think tank.
Ms Jean-Pierre spent much of her daily press briefing on Wednesday parrying questions from reporters, many of whom demanded to know why Mr Biden did not publicly reveal the discovery earlier.
“What I can tell you right now is what the President ... said to all of you, which is he was surprised by this. He definitely, truly respects the process here. And also when it comes to classified, he takes classified documents very seriously,” she said. “And, again, I’m going to leave you to the information that the President provided to all of you ... and also what my White House Counsel colleagues shared.”
