US President Joe Biden departs Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 2023. – Biden spoke at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on the eve of the national holiday honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. King was co-pastor of the church from 1960 until his assassination in 1968.
Brendan Smialowski | Afp | Getty Images
The White House counsel’s office reiterated on Tuesday President Joe Biden’s commitment to cooperating with the Justice Department’s investigation into the invention that he improperly removed and stored classified documents from the White House that he obtained while serving as vice chairman under former President Barack Obama.
“It is important to essentially understand the excellence here: President Biden is committed to doing the responsible thing and acting appropriately,” White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams said on a call with reporters. The White House disclosed Saturday that Biden’s lawyers turned over latest classified documents that were discovered at Biden’s Delaware home. “His team acted promptly to reveal information to the correct authorities and is cooperating fully.”
Last week the White House disclosed that classified government documents from the Obama administration were present in Biden’s possession on 4 separate occasions. Documents marked as classified were first discovered in November by lawyers for Biden in a locked closet in an office Biden used as a non-public citizen on the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C.
Though the documents were found on Nov. 2, the White House didn’t make the news public until last Monday. The documents were turned over to the National Archives. Other classified documents were present in Biden’s possession at other locations in searches on Dec. 20, Jan. 12 and Jan. 14, in line with the White House.
When pressed on why the White House withheld the invention of the documents until last week, Sams said officials were working throughout the constraints of the Justice Department investigation.
“Information goes to develop that is a natural a part of any investigation,” Sams said. “As soon because the searches were underway in search of additional documents to be properly handed to the federal government, we desired to be respectful to offer as complete information as we could, attempting to balance with the necessity to offer information to you all consistent with the investigation.”
On Thursday the White House confirmed more documents were discovered in a space for storing within the garage of Biden’s Delaware home. The identical day, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced he was appointing a special counsel to research the invention. Lawyers for Biden announced over the weekend that additional documents had been uncovered.
Garland tapped Robert Hur to function special counsel. Garland previously had assigned John Lausch, the U.S. Attorney for Chicago, to handle the inquiry after the primary batch of records were discovered in November.
By law, government records have to be given to the National Archives when a president or officials of their administration leave office. Sams declined to reply questions on the entire variety of documents found to this point and the content of the documents because that they had already been handed over to the Justice Department.
The invention of documents in Biden’s possession in early November got here just three months after FBI agents raided former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, seizing greater than 100 classified government documents and lots of of additional records federal prosecutors say belong to the U.S. government.
Trump is the main focus of a criminal probe by the DOJ for his removal of the records from the White House in January 2021.
Sams on Tuesday contrasted Republicans’ response to the news of Biden’s documents from their response to the invention of Trump’s.
“They’re involved in making this political theater and political stunts,” Sams said. “In the previous couple of days we have seen an eagerness amongst House Republicans to make their lack of credibility known. They’re specializing in things that they didn’t give attention to in previous circumstances, they’re making contradictory claims on television in regards to the underlying purposes of their inquiries.”
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