None Of Biden’s Excuses For Having Classified Documents Make Any Sense

Everybody. new cache of classified documents discovered in Joe Biden’s possession, the president’s excuses become more farfetched.

Biden’s defenders like to stress that the president has “cooperated” With investigators. No harm, no foul. Ana Navarro “The View” argues “it’s very important to understand the difference between cooperation and obstruction.” Neal Katyal snarks that it’s “amazing how you don’t need a search warrant when a President is actually willing to invite investigators inside.”

But not really. Biden’s lawyers almost surely asked for an FBI search of the president’s property after they knew special counsel Robert Hur would be compelled to obtain a warrant and conduct a search. Don’t take my word for it. Buried in today’s New York Times piece We learnt that “[e]veryone involved understood and agreed that the discovery of those six pages meant that the government would have to conduct its own search of the work and storage areas in the house…” Resisting the inevitable had no legal or political upside.

This brings us to a third pervasive defense for the president: Biden asserts that he had “immediately” He handed documents he had in his possession over “think tank,” As protocol directs. No harm, no foul. This claim is also ridiculous. All we know for sure is that Biden was in possession of classified documents, including some top secret ones, for at least six years — perhaps decades, since some of the documents date back to his time in the Senate. This is best described as a pattern of poor document handling over many years. There was no single mistake or mishap. That is true regardless of what Trump did or didn’t do.

Even if we allow that the first small batch of classified documents was accidentally stashed in his Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, why did it take six weeks for Biden’s lawyers — who have no security clearance — to search the president’s garage and “adjacent rooms”? If they really believed that the Penn Biden documents were a weird oversight, why start rummaging through boxes in the president’s garage? For that matter, why did Biden tap lawyers, rather than interns or movers or aides, to search reams of files and folders that had been sitting in drawers — allegedly undisturbed for years — at Biden’s “think tank” What was the original purpose of those documents? Was there any government or law enforcement agency that Biden contacted in relation to these documents?

None of this was known to us until January 9. The documents were uncovered On Nov. Another reason to be skeptical is that Biden knew the Republicans would take control of the House the week his lawyers allegedly found classified documents. He knew the GOP would soon be equipped with investigatory power and that they might be interested in his slush funds-y. “think tank.” It’s understandable that he would hire personal lawyers who are protected by attorney-client confidentiality to search for any potentially problematic documents.

There may be more innocent explanations than the original justifications.