More and more secret documents are appearing in Joe Biden’s private rooms

The scandal surrounding classified documents owned by Joe Biden is spreading. The US Department of Justice has appointed a special prosecutor. The news ticker.

Update from January 13, 2023, 4:40 a.m.: The affair surrounding the discovery of secret government documents in US President Joe Biden’s private rooms is expanding. The White House admitted on Thursday that classified information from Biden’s time as Vice President had also been discovered in the garage of Biden’s private home in Wilmington, Delaware.

As a reaction to the first discovery when clearing out the private offices in Washington, employees of the US President are said to have searched for further documents and finally found them in his house, explained Biden’s special adviser Richard Sauber. In addition to a find in a garage, Sauber announced on Thursday that another document had been discovered in an adjacent room among stored materials. Biden spoke of his “personal library”. There was no further information on this.

Secret documents discovered in private rooms: Biden appeased

+++ 9.38 p.m.: A special investigator is to investigate the finding of confidential documents in the office and private home of US President Joe Biden. This was announced by US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday. He hired former US Attorney Robert Hur to investigate whether laws had been violated. Biden’s legal adviser, Richard Sauber, said the papers were “inadvertently misplaced.”

+++ 6.15 p.m.: President Joe Biden downplayed the discovery of other classified documents to the US media: “As I said earlier this week, it is known that I take classified documents and classified material seriously. I also said that we are fully cooperating with the Department of Justice.”

More secret documents discovered in Joe Biden’s garage

Update from 5:15 p.m.: More secret documents owned by Joe Biden have surfaced. This was announced by the Office of the US President. Accordingly, a “small number of additional documents” with classified information markings were found in the garage of Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware. These documents are said to be documents from his time as Vice President.

Joe Biden himself was confronted with the finds in a press round on Thursday morning (local time). According to the news channel CNN, a reporter asked what he was thinking about keeping secret documents “next to his Corvette”. Biden replied, “My Corvette is in a locked garage. It’s not like she’s just standing on the street.”

More secret documents owned by Joe Biden discovered

First report from January 12, 2022: Washington, DC – US President Joe Biden is coming under increasing pressure. After the discovery of secret documents in a former private office of Biden, further government documents are said to have been found. Biden employees discovered them while searching a second location, several US media reported, citing unnamed sources.

Those TV channels NBC according to it is again classified documents, but the content as well as the exact location and the number of documents are still unclear. Only on Monday (January 9) did it become public that Biden had secret documents from his time as US Vice President at the time Barack Obama kept in his private offices at the Penn Biden Center in the capital. Biden used the space after he left the vice presidential post in 2017 until about 2020, the White House said.

Trump had similar problems: Secret documents found again at Biden

The documents are reported to be at least 10 classified papers, some of which are top-class classified. Biden said he was “surprised to learn of their existence.” He does not know who brought the documents there or what they contained. At the same time, he promised “full cooperation” with the investigations. The documents were immediately handed over to the National Archives.

The situation is politically extremely sensitive for Biden, as the former US President had Donald Trump triggered in the summer of 2022 in a similar case for a solid scandal in the USA. At that time, the FBI searched his property in Florida and confiscated hundreds of secret documents. Biden then criticized Trump.

Joe Biden under pressure over classified documents: Republican food

The second discovery of secret documents now offers the Republicans new fodder in their attacks against Biden. First and foremost was Donald Trump himself, who happily shared the reports on the new find on his social media network Truth Social. James Comer saw a double standard on the part of the Democrats: “The FBI searched the house of former President Trump (…) There is a special investigator who is investigating,” said the Republican chairman of the important Committee on Oversight and Reforms ABC. “We now have two different locations where Joe Biden had classified documents, but nothing happened.”

Josh Hawley, a Republican Senator from Missouri and a staunch Trump defender, responded to the revelation with a snap Tweet: “Special Counsel”. So far, Trump’s case has been classified as legally more serious than Biden’s. However, it is questionable whether this will remain the case after the renewed discovery. (cs/dpa)

List of rubrics: © OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP

Back to overview: Politics