President Joe Biden may be in hot water politically and legally.
Batches of classified documents from when he served as Vice President in the Obama administration have been found in multiple locations. Hashtags including #caralago and #garagegate trended on Twitter Thursday.
On Monday January 9, 2023, numerous outlets reported and the Whitehouse confirmed the first set of documents marked classified were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a think tank that bears his name, located in Washington D.C. These documents were reportedly found in November of 2022, just before the midterm elections.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that he was "surprised" to learn that that any government documents had been taken to a former personal office of his. He also said “people know I take classified documents, classified information seriously,” and that the documents were found in “a box, locked cabinet – or at least a closet.” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a press conference the documents were "inadvertently misplaced."
Then, on Wednesday January 11, 2023, the public was informed a second set of documents with classified markings were found at President Joe Biden’s residence in Wilmington Delaware around December 20, 2022. This batch of documents were found in a garage where the President’s classic Corvette car is stored.
Thursday, January 12, 2023 a lawyer for Biden revealed at least one additional document was found in President Joe Biden’s personal home in an adjacent room to the garage.
According to his counsel Richard Sauber, "all but one" of the new documents were found in storage in Biden's garage, and one document was in stored materials in "an adjacent room." (Source)
In a now infamous response Biden gave to a CBS 60 minutes reporter during a televised interview when asked about Former President Donald Trump’s raid on Mar-a-Lago and alleged mishandling of documents, Joe Biden was asked – “When you saw the photograph of the top secret documents laid out on the floor at Mar-a-Lago, what did you think to yourself looking at that image?" Biden responded:
"How that could possibly happen, how anyone could be that irresponsible, and, I thought what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods. By that, I mean, names of people helped or et cetera." -Joe Biden
In a contemptuous exchange with Fox News reporter Peter Doocy, Biden was asked - "Classified documents next to your Corvette? What were you thinking?" Biden responded - "I'm going to get the chance to speak on all of this, God willing it'll be soon, but I said earlier this week — and by the way my Corvette is in a locked garage. It's not like it's sitting out in the street,"
Joe Biden served as Vice President from 2009 to 2017 under President Barack Obama. It is unknown how any of the documents ended up in the locations they were found or how many times they had been moved, who moved them and why. A Special Counsel has been appointed by the Department of Justice to investigate the matter.
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