(WASHINGTON) A clearly troubled White House faced pressing questions Wednesday over the discovery of classified documents belonging to Vice President Joe Biden, an embarrassing revelation as authorities investigate a similar, but larger case, involving Donald Trump.
The Democratic president’s administration has confirmed so far that a “small number of classified documents” — about a dozen — were found in a “locked locker” at the Ben Biden Center, the think tank where Joe Biden once had an office.
But his collaborators have unearthed “at least one additional batch” of documents, revealing on Wednesday the NBC News series, followed by other media outlets.
With this new development, the case should continue to cause a stir and may prove cumbersome to investigate the many documents that Donald Trump stored in his residence in Florida, after he left the White House in 2021.
This case is much more serious. During a spectacular search, the FBI seized thousands of documents, including a hundred classified defense secrets, which the Republican refused to return. But the discovery remains embarrassing for a president who promotes his ethics.
Commentators say she could also bring subtle political considerations into the investigation of Donald Trump, who immediately called for the Democratic president to be given the same attention.
When will the FBI search several of Joe Biden’s residences, or even the White House?
no comment
The White House maintains that if mistakes are made, the administration at least corrects them immediately.
Once the first documents were found, at the end of November, the lawyers returned them to the National Archives, which manages this type of file, she defended herself.
The executive added that lawyers also went looking for possible missing documents elsewhere. This may explain the appearance of other papers on Wednesday – which, therefore, may not be the last.
To defuse the accusations of political interference, Attorney General Merrick Garland referred the case to a Chicago attorney general appointed during the Trump administration.
White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre cited the investigation to justify her refusal to respond to reporters’ questions about it on Wednesday. Which wasn’t enough to stop them.
“We will limit ourselves to what we can say here,” she said.
When asked several times, she referred to Joe Biden’s cautious statement on Tuesday, during which he asserted that he was unaware of its content.
“I was notified of this discovery and was surprised to learn that documents relating to the government had been transferred to this office,” he said on the sidelines of a summit with the Mexican President and Prime Minister of Canada in Mexico City.
“People know that I take confidential documents and confidential information very seriously,” he added.
