Republicans are seizing on the reported discovery of classified documents at one of President Joe Biden’s offices from his time as vice president.
The revelations come months after the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and recovered classified documents.
A U.S. attorney is reportedly reviewing the approximately 10 documents retrieved from the office.
Republicans wasted no time criticizing Biden and questioning the Justice Department.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted, “Joe Biden took classified documents from the White House when he was Vice President. The VP does NOT have the power to declassify, only POTUS. Joe Biden stole classified documents. This is a very serious crime. DOJ [and] NARA can’t sweep this under the rug AND persecute Trump.”
Joe Biden took classified documents from the White House when he was Vice President.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene?? (@RepMTG) January 10, 2023
The VP does NOT have the power to declassify, only POTUS.
Joe Biden stole classified documents.
This is a very serious crime.
DOJ & NARA can’t sweep this under the rug AND persecute Trump.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wrote, “Convene a grand jury.”
convene a grand jury. https://t.co/Me4dgynslK
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 9, 2023
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) asked, “When will the FBI raid his home?”
BREAKING: Classified documents from Joe Biden’s Vice Presidential days found at his private office.
— Congressman Troy Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) January 9, 2023
When will the FBI raid his home?
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote, “No FBI raid this time?”
No FBI raid this time? https://t.co/S0ns54Xjl3
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) January 9, 2023
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told reporters on Monday night, “This is further concern that there’s a two-tier justice system within the DOJ with how they treat Republicans vs. Democrats … certainly how they treat the former president vs. the current president.”
Trump also reacted to the news in a post on Truth Social. He wrote, “When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House? These documents were definitely not declassified.”
There are some differences between Biden’s case and Trump’s.
Biden’s lawyers reportedly contacted the National Archives the same day the documents were discovered. And the next morning, the documents were retrieved. Though it is worth noting if they were from Biden’s time as vice president, it took at least about six years for them to be returned.
By contrast, Trump resisted handing his documents over to the National Archives. He also reportedly had hundreds of classified documents, not just a handful.
Yet another difference is Trump had the ability to declassify documents as president. And while he claimed to have implemented a standing order declassifying documents, he has failed to provide evidence to back up the claim.
If the U.S. is going to prosecute cases of mishandling classified documents, then presidents and other high-level officials should be held to the same standard. Just because they are busy and important does not give them an excuse for not following the law — that’s just carelessness at best.
But we could now have three cases of prominent figures facing investigations for their handling of classified documents: Trump, Biden, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The Justice Department finds itself in a pickle. If it declines to charge Biden, which seems likely as he is a sitting president, and does charge Trump without some egregious development in his case, after refusing to indict Clinton, it will be hard to fight back allegations of a double standard.
