The explosive discovery of secret documents in Joe Biden’s office – what we already know about it Tomato soup about Van Gogh: activists plead not guilty

Where were the documents found?

The documents in question were in a private office of US President Joe Biden, which he used regularly between 2017, after the end of his vice presidency under Barack Obama, and 2020, up until the start of his own presidential campaign. That writes the news agency Reuters.

The documents appeared in the US capital Washington when the offices were vacated at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which belongs to the University of Pennsylvania, the White House announced Monday evening (local time). Biden founded the Center, a kind of think tank, after he stepped down as vice president in 2017.

According to Richard Sauber, a special adviser to the US president, the documents were discovered by the US president’s lawyers on November 2 last year, just days before the midterms. The documents were identified by the personal lawyers and handed over to the National Archives the following day. This was also reported on the day of discovery.

What kind of documents are they?

According to media reports, it specifically concerns ten documents, writes CBS News, among others. Meanwhile, Biden adviser Sauber did not provide an exact number of documents. CNN subsequently reported that those with the highest level of secrecy were among them, but none contained nuclear secrets.

The exact content of the documents is still unknown, and it has also remained unclear whether Biden was aware of the documents in the cabinet. A statement from the president is pending (see last point).

Why is the find potentially sensitive?

U.S. law states that documents used during the term of office of a president or vice president remain state property. This is exactly where Biden could have gotten himself prosecuted — by keeping records of his tenure private and not leaving them to the National Archives.

The whole thing also gets racy in light of the fact that Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump is currently grappling with a similar incident – even though it’s already clear that there is some difference (see next point). Biden described Trump’s handling of the files as “irresponsible”, these words are now flying around him.

Accordingly, the appearance of the Biden files, which may have been improperly filed, is naturally grist to Trump’s mill. Unsurprisingly, his criticism was not long in coming. Shortly after the case became known, Trump stormed into his social network “Truth Social”: “When will the FBI raid Joe Biden’s many apartments, maybe even the White House?”

And other Republicans also took the opportunity to directly attack the US president. For example, CNN quoted newly elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy: “Oh really? Have they only found it after all these years?” Fellow party member Byron Donalds said something similar: “Why were these documents only found six years later?”

The US Department of Justice has now taken over the case. There is no doubt that the timing of the incident’s publication is vastly more favorable to Biden and the Democrats right now than if the whole thing had gone public shortly after the midterm elections. The Democrats celebrated an unexpected success in the midterm elections, Biden is currently in a better light than in a long time:

What parallels and differences are there with the Trump causa?

Unsurprisingly, the White House insists it found and handed over the documents itself. The goal should be to present this case as completely different from Donald Trump’s dispute with the judiciary over the seized classified documents.

In that respect, however, there is actually already a recognizable difference between the two cases: while Biden adviser Richard Sauber assured that the National Archives would be notified immediately after the discovery and that the files would also be transferred as soon as possible, Trump willingly agreed discussion with the National Archives for months and with the judiciary and deliberately withheld files.

Although Trump’s lawyers turned over files to federal authorities after the bickering, but because of suspicions that the ex-president kept other documents on him, FBI officials eventually investigated his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida under a court order. . They even found other documents there that were described as “top secret”.

Trump later repeatedly argued that he himself had lifted the secrecy of the documents. Sitting presidents have far-reaching powers to disclose information and to break its secrecy. But it shouldn’t be as easy as Trump makes it out to be in this case. There is a formal procedure for releasing documents.

This point is now also relevant in the case of Biden: vice presidents also have the authority to release documents – albeit to a different extent than presidents. As with many other points, there is still ambiguity. An investigation by the US Department of Justice by Attorney General Merrick Garland should provide a definite answer in the coming weeks.

How does Biden respond?

Not at all so far. There is only the official statement from the White House and the statements from Biden’s special adviser Richard Sauber. The US president himself did not respond to questions about the documents during his visit to Mexico on Monday. Biden is in Mexico City for the North American Summit, which begins Tuesday. (con)

With material from the SDA and DPA news agencies.