‘It was just a really, really strange time for everyone’: Biden employees packing up files in his office worried about TRUMP’s arrival, new report claims after aides were questioned in classified information case
- AG Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur as a special counsel on Thursday
- “Several helpers” were questioned about how classified documents left WH
- Biden kept himself busy with a variety of activities in his final days
- Sources said he wants to go out with a bang on Trump’s imminent arrival
- Former assistant Kathy Chung reportedly helped pack the VP’s office
Aides sorting through reams of supplies in the White House during then-Vice President Joe Biden’s final days were packing boxes after hours amid a flurry of activity — while keeping tabs on Donald Trump’s upcoming presidency.
These final days in office in January came at a time when many Democratic aides were shocked by Trump’s victory, and many expected a Hillary Clinton victory amid a furious campaign fueled by hacking, Clinton’s email scandal, and public intervention upended by FBI Director James Comey and Trump’s unusual candidacy and impressive victory.
“It’s just been a really, really strange time for everyone,” a source familiar with the situation told CNN, who reported that aides were busy packing photos, papers and mementos, even at night while Biden was dealing with a spate of travel and activities.
As a result of the normal planning process, the documents were turned over to the National Archives — but last-minute work continued and additional material was generated until Biden’s final hours in office. Government investigators are now trying to unravel how classified material ended up at Biden’s Wilmington home and his DC think-tank office — after Attorney General Merrick Garland hired Special Counsel Robert Hur to oversee the investigation.
During the “strange time” before Donald Trump took office, aides scrambled to pack papers for outgoing Vice President Joe Biden
This comes amid a timeline that reveals new information about the recovered documents to government officials weeks before they are released.
Investigators have already spoken to “several aides” to untangle the situation — reportedly including Kathy Chung, who was Biden’s administrative assistant at the time.
Chung was identified while helping to bag up materials during the final days that Biden was in office, NBC reported. It would be years before it was discovered that a “small number” of documents marked as classified were discovered at Biden’s Wilmington home, after some were found in the Penn Biden office he maintained in Washington.
‘The people who boxed [up the vice presidential office] had no idea there was anything in there that wasn’t supposed to leave the White House,” a source told the network. “No decision was made to take any specific documents that were to be classified as Presidential records or classified.”
Prosecutors investigating the case will look for evidence of intent that will affect whether individuals are ultimately charged.
Papers from Biden’s vice presidency went to the archives and to a temporary GSA government facility
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is among top officials who previously worked at the Penn Biden Center where classified documents were found
The White House has declined to release visitor logs from Biden’s lakefront home in Wilmington, Delaware (pictured), where he spends most weekends — and has conducted most of the 2020 campaign due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
Many Democrats were devastated by Trump’s victory and had expected a transition to a Hillary Clinton presidency
Several of Biden’s current top aides also had roles at the Penn Biden Center.
Among the documents uncovered are reportedly 10 classified documents on subjects ranging from Ukraine to Iran and Britain. Biden visited former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko days before leaving office.
A Manila folder labeled “VP Personal” contained one of the documents discovered at the think tank’s office in November, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
That came before attorneys for the president discovered additional documents in his garage on Dec. 20, according to AG Merrick Garland, with an additional classified document discovered in an adjacent room that Biden’s attorneys notified the government of on Thursday.
During the frantic packing process, at a time when Biden continued to make his mark on politics at the end of his four decades in public office, boxes of material not going directly to the National Archives went to a temporary facility near the White House , which is run by the General Services Agency — the same agency that shipped boxes of supplies to Mar-a-Lago when Trump left office.
The materials went to another temporary office set up by Biden’s team and then to the Penn Biden Center.