White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted on Friday that officials were not hiding from scrutiny as she faced a barrage of skeptical questions about President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.
And she tried to hit back when asked if it was a coincidence that the Treasury Secretary chose Friday to announce that the US is heading for a sovereign debt default in June, just as questions about documents in Biden’s garage at home intensified .
“Just to be perfectly clear, I’ve been in here almost every day since we got back from Mexico City … standing here and answering your questions at length so we don’t avoid anything here,” she said.
“And you’ve heard from the President at least twice.
“And we have presented several statements from the White House Office.
‘So this suggestion, I just don’t agree with that.’
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faced a barrage of questions Friday about President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents from his vice presidential tenure
The White House has been fighting a pullback since reports Monday that classified documents had been discovered in a private office Biden used after he left the vice president.
Biden’s attorneys said on November 2, 10 classified documents were found at the Penn-Biden Center, a think tank in Washington, DC.
But the White House kept the discovery a secret for two months, until after the midterm elections, when the revelation could have been deeply politically damaging.
With former President Donald Trump already facing possible prosecution for keeping government files at his home in Mar-a-Lago, the find couldn’t be more embarrassing.
On Thursday, the White House acknowledged that other classified documents were found in the garage of Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.
Amid mounting questions about the scandal, Janet Yellen provided bombshell news on Friday. The Treasury Secretary said the nation is likely to hit the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling by Jan. 19, forcing her department to embark on “extraordinary” cash management measures to avert a default by early June.
On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland (right) appointed a special counsel to begin an independent investigation into Biden’s handling of the documents
Other classified documents were found at Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington
Timeline of discovery of Biden documents and initial investigation
November 2: 10 classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank in Washington, DC, by President Joe Biden’s attorneys.
Nov 3: The National Archives were notified of the discovery
November 4: The Office of the Inspector General of the National Archives contacted a Justice Department prosecutor and informed him that classified material had been discovered at the Penn Biden Center. The documents were secured in an archive facility
November 8: 2022 midterm elections
November 9: The FBI began an evaluation to determine whether classified material had been mishandled
November 14: Attorney General Merrick Garland hired US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch to determine whether a special counsel was needed
12/20: The President’s personal attorney tells Lausch that more classified documents were found in Biden’s garage in Wilmington, Delaware. The FBI secured these documents
January 5: Lausch advised Garland to appoint a special counsel
Jan. 9: The White House announces publicly classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president found in the office of his DC think tank
January 12: The President’s personal attorney informed Lausch that another document had been discovered at Biden’s Wilmington home
Jan. 12: The White House publicly announces that more classified documents have been found at Biden’s Wilmington home
The issue sparked a series of questions in Jean-Pierre’s regular briefing, allowing her a break from questioning about the classified documents and the decision, made a day earlier, to appoint a special counsel to handle the investigation.
“What I can tell you is that we were not informed that Attorney General Garland was going to make his announcement about the special counsel yesterday,” Jean-Pierre said.
“We learned that, like many of you, from watching the news. I won’t go into that any further.’
She parried question after question, referring journalists to the Justice Department or the White House Legal Office until the inevitable happened.
Would she undertake to bring Presidential Advisor Richard Sauber to the briefing room to update him.
Instead, she urged journalists to contact his office directly.
“The Office of the White House Counsel has provided information on this this week, if appropriate,” she said.
Meanwhile, Republicans smell blood and have upped the ante.
In a letter to the White House, Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said the address where the documents were found was listed as Hunter Biden’s address on his driver’s license until 2018.
“The Committee is concerned that President Biden kept classified documents in the same place where his son resided while conducting international business with opponents of the United States,” the letter said.
Comer asked for information on all classified documents retrieved by Biden aides at each location, as well as full lists of everyone who had searched for documents and locations that had been searched.
He also asked for all communications between the White House and the Justice Department and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Biden himself ignored questions raised on the subject on Friday as he welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio to the White House.