DOJ asked Biden team not to investigate the classified docs further: Report
Ryan King
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Upon learning about President Joe Biden’s classified documents, the Justice Department reportedly initially asked his team to refrain from further examining the files or other possibly relevant material at different locations.
The request came in the form of a letter to Biden’s attorney Bob Bauer in mid-November of last year following the discovery of classified files from Biden’s vice presidency days at a think tank, the Washington Post reported. Biden’s team later embarked on a sweep of his properties and unearthed further classified materials.
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Officials also asked for a list of where additional documents were stashed as they mulled searching for any lingering classified material, per the report. Biden ultimately signed off on the searches.
The DOJ had contemplated overseeing Biden’s team as they conducted a sweep of his residences but ultimately declined to do so out of concern that it could make their investigation of the matter more complicated later on, per the Wall Street Journal.
“The key here is the DOJ letter apparently asking Biden team to NOT review any docs in other locations. If true, that [could] explain why the WH acted so oddly in handling this matter,” Andrew Weissmann, a lawyer who has been dubbed the “Mueller Pitbull” for his role in the Robert Mueller-Russia investigation, tweeted in response to the report.
https://twitter.com/AWeissmann_/status/1615904292619096064
Biden has been under scrutiny for the communications strategy surrounding the classified document saga. One of his lawyers first discovered classified material at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a foreign policy-focused think tank, on Nov. 2, 2022. His team then initiated a search of his Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, residences. They then told the DOJ about more material found in Wilmington on Dec. 20, 2022.
When news of the document discovery at the think tank last year broke last week, the White House confirmed reports but declined to divulge the discovery of the second batch from last December, drawing criticism from detractors for a lack of transparency.
Biden’s team largely modeled their strategy for the document controversy on that letter, making careful moves in cooperation with DOJ officials, according to the Washington Post. The goal was to build trust and juxtapose Biden’s handling of the classified document matter with that of former President Donald Trump.
By Nov. 10, the DOJ told Biden’s legal team that the department was opening an inquiry about the classified document matter and would interview the president’s aides, per the report. In response, his team stopped pressing his current and former staffers about what they knew to avoid an appearance of witness tampering.
His team also entered a “highly cautious mode” in response to the DOJ’s inquiry, according to the Washington Post.
Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of special counsel Robert Hur to spearhead the DOJ’s investigation into the classified document scandal. Biden has insisted that he has been “cooperating fully” with investigators.
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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) have also both commenced inquiries into Biden’s classified documents.
So far, roughly two dozen classified documents were reportedly discovered, including top secret files and ones marked for “sensitive compartmented information.” The material is believed to stem from 2013 to 2016 and features intelligence on Iran, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. Presidents and vice presidents are expected to relinquish those types of documents at the culmination of an administration.