House Oversight chairman demands list of names and locations linked to Biden document searches
Sarah Westwood
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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) pressed President Joe Biden’s legal team on Friday for more details about how the president’s staff handled classified documents in the run-up to a public controversy over the records.
Comer demanded a list of the classified papers recovered so far from multiple private locations in Biden’s home and office. He also asked for a list of the names, security clearance levels, and job titles of any aide or attorney assigned by Biden to search for government documents among his personal records.
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The list of requests came one day after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee an investigation of how Biden handled classified material taken from his time as vice president.
Republicans have questioned why the National Archives and Records Administration, as well as the Justice Department, which was reviewing the matter, permitted Biden’s lawyers to conduct searches of his properties on their own while sending FBI agents into the home of former President Donald Trump when he was suspected of improperly storing classified documents as well. The Biden administration had issued a subpoena for the documents prior to the raid.
While Biden’s team submitted the first batch of mishandled classified materials to the government in November, the Justice Department does not appear to have sent any investigators to verify that Biden had returned all the papers in his possession.
Biden’s legal team then claimed to have discovered more material weeks later at his home in Delaware, the address his son Hunter Biden apparently listed on his driver’s license as late as 2018.
“The Committee is concerned President Biden stored classified documents at the same location his son resided while engaging in international business deals with adversaries of the United States,” Comer said in the letter.
The Oversight chairman asked the president’s lawyers for a complete list of all the locations that Biden’s aides have searched for classified records.
He also requested to see any communications between the White House and both the National Archives and the Justice Department regarding the transfer of the documents discovered to date.
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Biden has faced withering criticism for defending his treatment of sensitive material just months after he blasted his predecessor for doing something seemingly similar.
Biden said in the fall that he could hardly imagine “how anyone could be that irresponsible,” referring to the classified records Trump kept in storage alongside personal papers at his Mar-a-Lago home.