I know what you’re thinking. Joe Biden has a think tank? What are they thinking about? New ice cream flavors?
It’s called the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a word salad of collecting donations and releasing policy appears.
The center, however, recently became the focus of an investigation by the Department of Justice over the mishandling of classified documents just before the November midterm elections. Oddly enough, after the raid on Mar-a-Lago over the alleged mishandling of classified documents by former President Donald Trump, you’d think that more would be known about the Biden case.
As it stands, most of the information is only now being released:
Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned the U.S. attorney in Chicago to review documents marked classified that were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, two sources with knowledge of the inquiry told CBS News. The roughly 10 documents are from President Biden’s vice-presidential office at the center, the sources said. CBS News has learned the FBI is also involved in the U.S. attorney’s inquiry.
The material was identified by personal attorneys for Mr. Biden on Nov. 2, just before the midterm elections, Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president confirmed. The documents were discovered when Mr. Biden’s personal attorneys “were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.,” Sauber said in a statement to CBS News. The documents were contained in a folder that was in a box with other unclassified papers, the sources said. The sources revealed neither what the documents contain nor their level of classification. A source familiar with the matter told CBS News the documents did not contain nuclear secrets.
Notice how quickly the concerns get shot down since “a source familiar with the matter” told CBS News that there were no nuclear secrets contained in the documents. In other words: “See, Biden’s not as bad as Trump!”
Another stunning aspect of this case is how there were no leaks before the midterm elections. The entire federal bureaucracy was locked up tight with regard to a politically sensitive matter relating to a Democratic president. Not one hint of impropriety or an “unnamed source” appearing in the Washington Post to throw fuel on the fire and accuse Biden of potentially putting the country at risk or maybe putting classified information up for sale to the highest bidder. Joe Biden does, after all, have a propensity for trading on his time as Vice President and collecting 10% from his family’s foreign business dealings as “the big guy.”
As Rep. James Comer said, “how ironic” that the freakout over Trump’s alleged classified document handling doesn’t reach the same level for Biden:
“President Biden has been very critical of President Trump mistakenly taking classified documents to the residence or wherever and now it seems he may have done the same,” said GOP Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who is set to become the House Oversight Chairman. “How ironic.”
Comer pointed out that the National Archives falls under his committee’s jurisdiction for oversight but said when they, while in the minority, sent NARA questions related to former Trump, NARA referred Republicans to the Justice Department.
“Maybe they’ll answer our questions now because it pertains to two presidents,” Comer said, adding he plans to ask the archives for more information later this week.
Presidents often leave office with a lot of classified material, most of which is set to someday become a part of their presidential library or collection. Former President Barack Obama had boxes of documents stored in Chicago after he left the White House, none of which gave anyone concern. The Biden documents recently uncovered were also from a time during the Obama administration and related directly to Joe Biden’s time as Vice President.
From all appearances, the issue will get swept away cleanly under the rug by Biden’s allies in the Justice Department.
