“No regrets,” says Biden about not revealing classified documents discovered at his office

Washington [US], January 20 (ANI): US President Joe Biden has said he has no regrets over not revealing earlier that classified documents had been discovered in November at his private office, reported CNN.

“We’re fully cooperating, and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly. I think you’re gonna find there’s nothing there. I have no regrets. I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do, that’s exactly what we’re doing,” CNN quoted Biden as saying. This comes as Biden’s first public remark in a week on the classified documents found at his private office in Washington, DC, and his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

It is being investigated as to how the president and his team handled Obama-era classified documents that were recently found in Biden’s private possession. The investigation is being led by Special Counsel Robert Hur. Biden’s special counsel confirmed on January 9 that classified documents from his time as vice president were discovered in a private office space and turned over to the National Archives in November, reported CNN.

Though the first documents were found on November 2, the news was not publicly revealed until last week when US-based television broadcasting company CBS reported their existence. Other documents have since been found at Biden’s home in Wilmington. It’s an issue that has frustrated Biden behind closed doors and that feeling spilled out into public view on Thursday. Before answering a reporter’s question about the matter, the president vented over the persistent questions that have followed him over the last two weeks, according to the CNN report.

Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned the US attorney in Chicago to review documents marked classified that were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, two sources with knowledge of the inquiry told CBS News. The documents are from President Biden’s vice-presidential office at the centre, sources said. CBS News learned the FBI is also involved in the US attorney’s inquiry.

Attorney General Merrick Garland asked the US attorney in Chicago to investigate the matter, a source familiar with the matter told CNN, and congressional Republicans are also taking notice. Federal officeholders are required by law to relinquish official documents and classified records when their government service ends.

“The White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified markings,” Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden, said in a statement. “The documents were discovered when the President’s personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Centre in Washington.

The President periodically used this space from mid-2017 until the start of the 2020 campaign. On the day of this discovery, November 2, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office notified the National Archives. The Archives took possession of the materials the following morning. The discovery of these documents was made by the President’s attorneys,” Sauber added.

Sauber on January 14 said that another trove of classified government documents was discovered in President Joe Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware.
“Because I have a security clearance, I went to Wilmington on Thursday evening to facilitate providing the document the President’s personal counsel found on Wednesday to the Justice Department,” Sauber said in a statement, according to CNN.

“While I was transferring it to the DOJ officials who accompanied me, five additional pages with classification markings were discovered among the material with it, for a total of six pages. The DOJ officials with me immediately took possession of them,” Sauber added.