Legal Political Battle — What Will Happen to Biden’s 2nd Term After the Classified Documents Scandal?

After American newspapers’ revelations on January 10, 2023, that President Joe Biden is preparing to announce his candidacy for a second term in February of the same year, a scandal has bubbled to the surface and may afflict his hopes and put him in a political and legal embarrassment.

Sensitive government documents were found in one of his offices at the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which is a research center affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, where the US President resided for a period, and was named after him, and organizes events attended by policy and law experts.

The documents are US intelligence memos and media summaries of Biden when he was former vice president under Barack Obama, some of which are related to Ukraine, Iran, and the United Kingdom, according to what informed sources told CNN on January 10, 2023.

The crisis is due to the fact that finding secret government documents (which are forbidden to be kept) in a private office for Biden, related to his tenure when he was vice president, represents a legal problem that may have political repercussions.

This comes in light of the investigation into a similar case related to former Republican President Donald Trump, which opened a new door to controversy and political battles in Washington.

The law states, according to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) website, that federal office holders are required by law to relinquish official documents and classified records upon finishing their government service.

It clarifies that the official records of the President and his staff are owned by the United States, not by persons, and any records created or received by the President while fulfilling his duties are the property of the United States Government and shall be administered by NARA after concluding the administration’s term.

This is not all; a lawyer for the president said in a statement Saturday night that a new search of President Joe Biden’s home found six more items, including documents with classification markings.

 

Classified Documents Scandal

CBS News was the first to break the story of Biden hiding classified documents on January 10, 2022.

It confirmed that Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered a review of classified documents found at the Ben Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, and then CNN published its details the next day.

CBS News quoted two sources familiar with the investigation as saying that the documents were found by Biden’s personal lawyers on November 2, 2022, when they were packing files in a locked safe to prepare for the evacuation of Biden’s old office.

It explained that the documents did not contain nuclear secrets and that 10 sensitive files were recovered with “top secret” marks.

The documents did not contain nuclear secrets, as CBS reported.

CNN confirmed on January 9 that what was found in Biden’s office reportedly included top-secret files designated “sensitive compartmented information” or SCI, meaning the highly sensitive information was obtained from intelligence sources, according to CNN.

The first batch of 10 of the 12 classified documents included intelligence memos and other material related to Iran, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. The papers were dated between 2013 and 2016 in Biden’s private office.

The US President denied knowing the content of the official documents found in his former office.

Biden confirmed that he had no knowledge of the content of classified documents dating back to the period when he was Vice President under Barack Obama (2009-2017).

The US president explained that these documents were found when a lawyer was cleaning his office at the University of Pennsylvania, and as soon as they discovered that some of them were classified, they called the Archives to hand the documents over to them and that he would cooperate fully with the judiciary in the case of the documents.

Richard Sauber, the president’s legal advisor, said this small number of classified documents were found in a locked safe at the Ben Biden Center.

But Jonathan Turley, a lawyer and professor at George Washington University Law School, wrote in the New York Post, mocking Biden’s denial that he did not know about these documents, stressing that the confidential documents were transferred at least twice, so how did he not know?

He said on January 11: “[The] most serious discovery would be evidence that Biden worked off their documents or removed them from their classification folders.

“While gross mishandling does not require evil intent, unintentional violations are often addressed outside of the criminal justice system,” he added. “The most serious violations have been prosecuted where material was intentionally removed.”

Meanwhile, President Biden is feigning ignorance, simply saying he was “surprised” the documents were there to lessen his vulnerability to accusations of obstruction or false statements, according to the lawyer.

Turley criticized the silence of Attorney General Merrick Garland, although he was briefed on the discovery of these classified documents in Joe Biden’s old office on November 2, 2022.

He said that Garland was aware of the Biden documents when he appointed a special counsel (Jack Smith, who was appointed on November 18, 2022) to investigate the classified documents in the Trump home; Turley wondered why he did not know about them then.

CNN and Fox News say the Presidential Records Act states that all documents from the president’s administration and staff must be turned over to the National Archives immediately upon completion of official duties.

Fox News criticized the defense and haste of liberal media, such as the Washington Post and CBS, for the president after secret documents were found and justifying the Biden document scandal, asking: “When does the FBI storm his house?” (As happened with Trump).

It said Biden criticized former President Trump in September 2022 for his “irresponsible” handling of classified documents on “60 Minutes,” while the current president did the same.

The Washington Post said on January 9 that the Biden case is completely different from Trump’s, because the latter is not only about the potential mishandling of classified documents but also obstruction of justice and destruction of records.

 

Will He Be Punished?

The discovery caused great embarrassment to the White House because it was revealed at a time when the authorities were investigating a much larger scandal related to the misuse of classified documents by former President Donald Trump, for which the latter may be prosecuted.

In the case of Biden, 12 documents were found and handed over immediately, but Trump lingered, and the FBI announced that it had found more than 100 secret documents, some of which contained information about nuclear weapons.

Trump has also been charged, including: Possible violations of the Espionage Act, improper handling of federal records, and obstruction of the federal investigation, but Biden may only be blamed, according to US expectations.

Keeping confidential information after leaving government service (such as Biden’s case after his role as Obama’s deputy ended) does not necessarily lead to criminal charges, according to CBS News.

The FBI contented itself with blaming former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she put official information on her email for several years after she left the ministry in 2013.

The Washington Post explained on January 9, 2023, that the details provided by Biden’s lawyer indicated major differences that could significantly affect whether his case becomes a criminal matter.

Trump’s investigation concerns not only the possible mishandling of classified documents but also the possibility of obstruction of justice or destruction of records, according to the newspaper.

The latter quoted a person familiar with the matter as saying that in both cases, classified information went to a place it should not go, and this raises the question about the way to deal with official materials.

The Business Insider website quoted Bradley P. Moss, a national security lawyer, as saying that he believes there are differences between the two cases.

So the investigation has so far been “routine” and may have been motivated by the Department of Justice’s desire to appear impartial.

The Biden team did exactly what it was supposed to do. When one finds classified documents improperly stored, one has to notify the government immediately, according to the lawyer.

However, he indicated that the nature of the investigation could change if the prosecutor responsible for reviewing the documents revealed any evidence that Biden or his staff had deliberately misled the National Archives.

As for Trump, in his opinion, his case is surrounded by criminal issues because the investigation showed an attempt to “obstruct justice” and not just the improper preservation of documents.

This is why the investigation has reached the stage of looking into filing a criminal charge against Trump, he added.

CNN also indicates that in the case of Trump, the Records Department discovered the disappearance of documents, and the former president’s team bargained with it for a period in order to recover the files.

Ultimately, Trump returned 15 boxes of documents, but federal investigators later found that he still kept dozens of additional classified files, so they obtained permission to search his residence in Florida to find the rest of the documents.

It pointed out that it is not uncommon for people with security clearances to mishandle confidential documents.

But these situations are usually dealt with administratively rather than criminally, and the standards for criminal prosecution include proving that the person willfully violated the rules on how the material was secured.

Former Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger, who was on the committee investigating the events of January 6 (the storming of Congress by Trump supporters in 2021), believed that the investigation with Biden would probably depend on identifying the person, among his staff, who dealt with the documents and whether the matter was deliberate or just accidental.

Also, the correspondent of The Hill website said that there are differences in the cases of Biden and Trump. In the case of the first, his team found the documents and immediately took them to the National Archives.

Investigators also found a large number of documents in Trump’s home, while a few documents were discovered in Biden’s office.

The situations are very different, so legally, there is a big difference between the two cases.

 

Political Battle

The secret documents, which were revealed in Biden’s former office, caused political embarrassment for the president and his party and provided an opportunity for Trump and the Republican Party to launch a counter-campaign to tarnish the image of the former and prevent him from running again for the 2024 elections.

The issue also began to raise a political debate in Washington, with the House of Representatives, with its Republican majority, officially taking over its work.

It led to a political problem because the disclosure of the documents came after Biden criticized his predecessor Trump, following the FBI’s confiscation in August 2022 of secret documents from his private home in Florida.

“How could that happen? How could anyone be so irresponsible?” Biden asked

Therefore, finding these secret documents was an opportunity for Trump to attack him and his party, Biden and his deputy general, for their investigation of the former president and his aides for concealing secret documents, claiming that the matter is similar to what happened with him.

Trump asked on his social media platform Truth Social: “When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?”

He was alluding to the FBI searching his Florida home and charging him and his aides with concealing and keeping classified documents, a federal crime under investigation.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy also called the recovery of classified documents from Biden’s term as vice president “extremely troubling.”

He added that Biden had these secret documents in his possession, so why did he say about the other president (Trump) that he kept secret documents?

When asked if this case was different because the lawyers found it and “immediately” handed over the materials, “Oh, really? They just now found them after all those years,” McCarthy said.

The new House Oversight Committee Chairman, Rep. James Comer, also asked about the difference in what Trump and Biden did.

He added that people want to know exactly what documents Trump and Biden took and whether the judiciary would treat the current president differently than they dealt with his predecessor.

Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News that if Biden appointed a special counsel to investigate Trump over classified documents, he should appoint another special counsel regarding his own mishandling of classified documents.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has responded and appointed a new special counsel, Robert Hoare, to investigate President Biden’s handling of classified documents belonging to the Obama administration, according to Fox News.

CNN indicates that the decision to charge Trump over the confidential documents issue, and not to take the same action against Biden, could spark a political uproar among conservatives, who would accuse the attorney general of double standards.