House Judiciary Speaker Jim Jordan angrily demanded answers from the Biden administration Thursday morning after a second batch of classified files linked to the president was found.
These secret files from Joe Biden’s vice presidency were discovered in a “storage room” at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, the White House revealed on Thursday.
The latest find comes just days after the first set of sensitive files was found at a DC office for his think tank, and Biden officials dodged questions about unearthing other records.
“Where’s the raid? Where are the pictures? Where’s the special counsel? What is a batch? What does that mean? We know that’s more than one, so is that two documents or 2,000 documents? Where is the place?’ Jordan fired during an early morning interview on Fox & Friends.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan fired off a litany of questions he says the Biden administration needs to provide answers to classified files found
He asked, “Where are the pictures?” apparently in response to federal agents taking photos of documents with secret markings recovered from Donald Trump’s resort
Republicans were quick to liken the relatively low-key treatment of the Biden files to the high-profile FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Florida mansion, in which dozens of classified and top-secret records that had been improperly preserved were returned to the National Archives.
“The most important question,” Jordan said, was why the first 10 documents revealed earlier this week have not been disclosed until now, despite being found on November 2, 2022.
“The press was everywhere when it came to President Trump,” Jordan said.
“So again I think the double standard is obvious and then the tons of questions every American has I think.”
Texas Rep. Troy Nehls called for a search warrant to be issued and executed against Biden.
“We need to go to his office and see if there are any more documents. You found a batch, you find a second batch, there might be more out there. Let’s get a special prosecutor for him,’ Nehls said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was hounded by reporters during her Wednesday briefing just before the article was published – and insisted that Biden takes classified documents and their preservation “seriously.”
President Joe Biden said he was “surprised” that classified documents were found in his former office at the Penn-Biden Center, a think tank in Washington, DC
On Wednesday, reporters asked Jean-Pierre if Biden had checked whether he might have taken other documents to another office he has or to his homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth, Delaware.
She refused to answer. “I’m just not going to talk about it. I let the process continue. It’s an ongoing process. And so I’m just not going to talk about it from here. It’s more prudent and appropriate for my colleagues in the White House.’
Earlier in the week it was reported that in November 2022, attorneys for the president discovered documents in his former office at the Penn-Biden Center in Washington, DC, which he used after his stint as vice president.
The documents were discovered in a locked cupboard as the lawyers were clearing the office to move out.
The White House acknowledged that Biden’s attorneys found 10 documents with classified markings in an old Washington, DC think tank office. The President was peppered with questions about the discovery.
The classified documents, which appear to have come from the Obama administration, were found on November 2 – ahead of the midterm elections – although news of the documents didn’t emerge until months later.
The DC office building where 10 classified documents were found in a former office of current President Joe Biden
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment at a news conference on classified documents found in a think tank office formerly used by President Joe Biden.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who approved the FBI search warrant issued at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, is being asked to do the same for President Biden and his handling of classified documents.
Sen. Lindsey Graham said on Fox News Wednesday that Attorney General Merrick Garland should appoint a special counsel to deal with the matter, as he did for the Trump investigation.
“Garland, if you’re listening, if you felt it necessary, Attorney General, to appoint a special counsel in relation to President Trump, then you must do the exact same thing in relation to President Biden when it comes to handling classified information,” said South Carolina Republicans.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley responded to the news by simply tweeting the words “Special Counsel.”
“My question is regarding the first batch, what did Merrick Garland know when they were discovered on Nov. 3 and he declared a special counsel for Trump on Nov. 18?” Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., told DailyMail .com
“Obviously he had some knowledge and he still chose a special counsel, announced him, you know, had this whole rollout and no mention. What did he know?’
Waltz also polled “who knew” about the documents between November 3 and November 8, midterm election day.
“The timing is incredibly suspicious,” Waltz continued. “It must be one of the greatest coincidences in the world if politics weren’t involved.”
Biden was questioned about the documents at the head of his trilateral news conference Tuesday in Mexico City alongside Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The President said he was “surprised” to find out classified documents were discovered in a box in a locked cupboard. But said his lawyers did what they should have done.
“They immediately called the archives – immediately called the archives and turned them over to the archives,” the president said.
The documents were discovered on November 2nd and turned over to the archives on November 3rd.
Armed Secret Service agents stand outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida late Monday, August 8, 2022 while the FBI searched a portion of his home for classified White House files
Former President Donald Trump says Biden’s home, like his Mar-a-Lago estate, should be “searched” for classified documents.
Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the Trump investigation on Nov. 18.
Biden said he didn’t know the contents of the documents and his attorneys advised him not to ask about them.
“And we are fully cooperating with the review,” the president added.
Republicans have lamented a “double standard” and said Trump’s possession of classified documents made him the subject of a raid in Mar-a-Lago in August.
The Biden team has pointed out that in Trump’s case, the FBI knew that Trump had not fully complied with a subpoena from the archives to return all classified documents. In Biden’s case, the archives were unaware of the missing documents.
Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, the newly appointed chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, contacted Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and said Biden’s preservation of the documents exposed him to a “potential violation of laws protecting national security, including the Espionage, Deploy Act and Presidential Records Act.”
Under the Presidential Records Act, White House documents and classified records are required to be preserved at the National Archives in Washington, DC.