Rep. Schiff: National Security Possibly Jeopardized With Biden Documents
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, conceded Sunday that it’s possible national security was jeopardized after President Joe Biden’s lawyers confirmed classified documents were found—now the center of the Justice Department special counsel investigation.
Schiff replied to a question about possible national security risks during an interview on Sunday ABC News. “I don’t think we can exclude the possibility without knowing more of the facts.” He said, “I’d like to know what these documents were … I’d like to know what the [special counsel’s] assessment is.”
Another tranche of classified materials was discovered in Biden’s possession over the weekend. They were discovered in multiple instances. A White House lawyer confirmed that five pages of classified material were located at Biden’s Delaware home.
Attorney General Merrick Galrland had announced days earlier that he would appoint Robert Hur, a former U.S. attorney for Maryland, as special counsel to oversee the investigation. It came after classified documents were found at the president’s office and another batch found at his Delaware home.
“This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law,” Garland stated Thursday.
On Sunday, Schiff stated that Garland’s decision to appoint a special counsel was the right one. A few months prior, Garland had also appointed Jack Smith as a special counsel to investigate issues relating to former President Donald Trump. legal experts have speculated that the recent disclosures of classified documents in Biden’s possession undermines similar Justice Department’s probes into Trump.
“The attorney general has to make sure that not only is justice evenly applied, but the appearances of justice are also satisfactory to the public,” Schiff stated. “And here, I don’t think he had any choice but to appoint a special counsel.”
Schiff, along with other Democrats, asserted that Biden’s and Trump’s cases are different because Biden, he said, is cooperating. It’s worth noting, however, that the National Archives had confirmed last year that Trump’s lawyers were cooperating with the agency before the FBI raided his Florida residence in August.
“The Biden approach was very different in the sense that it looks that it was inadvertent that these documents were at these locations,” Schiff stated. “There was no effort to hold onto them, no effort to conceal them, no effort to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation.”
Investigative Services
Schiff, who was chair of the House Intelligence Committee, had been a prominent figure in the House before Republicans gained a majority. Trump frequently criticized Schiff for leaking information to the press and fabricating information. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R.Calif.), confirmed this month that he would remove Eric Swalwell, a fellow California Democrat, from the House Intelligence Panel.
Schiff’s comments come amid multiple announcements from House Republicans about investigations into the Biden classified documents case.
“We first learned about the Penn Biden Center classified documents months after they were found in an unsecure closet,” James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, is the House Oversight chairman. He wrote this in a recent statement. “Then it took the White House weeks to inform the public about the documents found in President Biden’s Wilmington garage.”
“Now that Democrats no longer have one-party rule in Washington, oversight and accountability are coming,” Comer wrote a separate letter asking Janet Yellen to send his panel suspicious activity reports related to the Biden family. “The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating President Biden’s involvement in his family’s foreign business practices and international influence peddling schemes.”
‘Political Football’
In the meantime, another House Democrat has warned that the Biden document case could lead to a “political football” During a Sunday interview with the media
“We don’t want to turn this into just a political football,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.CNN was informed by, a member of House Judiciary panel and also sat on controversial Jan.6 select committee.
Raskin, like Schiff, asserted that Trump’s and Biden’s reactions were different.
“That is a very different posture than what we saw with Donald Trump, where he was fighting for a period of more than eight months to not turn over hundreds of missing documents that the Archives was asking about. He defied a government subpoena, and they ended up having to go to court to get a court issued subpoena to go and search Mar-a-Lago. So that’s just a completely different posture,” Raskin agreed.
Correction: Rep. Schiff’s party affiliation has been corrected. The Epoch Times regrets making this mistake.
Breaking News Reporter
Jack Phillips, a senior reporter at The Epoch Times, is based in New York. He is a reporter for breaking news.
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