With the timeline (see below), of Joe Biden’s classified document problem is slowly growing, as a 4th tranche of documents are found on Jan 20, 2023.
Biden, keeps saying he is a responsible handler of classified documents, yet he appears to be a serial hoarder of classified documents, leaving them in places where he last left them, and then forgetting about them. Some might say with the iterations involved, a case of Gross Negligence.
Biden, states he is transparent, yet not until CBS broke the story, from an un-named source in January, did any transparency come forth. He was successful in blocking any reporting prior to the Nov 2022 elections.
Note that if Joe Biden was a private citizen, working for the government, his treatment would be much different. For example on the Dept of Justice website, is a story how a Honolulu woman received 3 months in prison for offenses similar to Joe Biden[s. The story can be found here.
The author has held various clearances, with different agencies, at varying levels, included compartment’d access, for 31 years before retiring in 2017. What we have here is a classic “Chain Of Custody” problem. Who signed off and checked the documents out? I have seen people shown the door, a number of times, for less.
1) A sitting president has broad authority to declassify information and documents. Nominally however these tasks are relegated to various departments that are more closely linked with a given information set. This issue came up early in the Trump presidency in 2017, described here.
President Joe Biden’s best bet may be to have ex President Obama state the documents were declassified by him? Or, …, perhaps he simply forgot. Most people would believe the latter.
Biden Documents Timeline
16-Aug-22()-
22-Sep-22(Thu) – Biden appears on 60 minutes, here, to discuss former President Trump’s Mar Lago. When asked about the Trump Classified document situation, Biden stated, “How that could possibly happen, how anyone could be that irresponsible”.
2-Nov-22(Wed) The 1st set of classified documents are found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.
4-Nov-22(Fri) The National Archives notifies the Justice Department
8-Nov-22(Tue) The midterm elections are held and completed.
9-Nov-22(Wed) With the midterm election completed, the FBI decides, mid-week, to begin their assessment.
14-Nov-22(Mon) Attorney General(AG), Merrick Garland, head of the Justice Department tasks U.S. Attorney John Lausch to begin reviewing the Biden documents.
16-Nov-22(Wed) AG Garland appoints a special counsel to investigate Trump’s Mar-a-Lago document set.
20-Dec-22(Tue) Biden’s lawyers, inform U.S. Attorney Lausch, that additional 2nd set of documents have been found in Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.
9-Jan-23(Mon) Media outfits, CBS, begin reporting this story. With the elections over and new congress sworn in, it’s time to go public and begin framing the issue.
10-Jan-23(Tue) Biden, talking to the media states he (now) has a special room at his home where he.reviews classified issues. Note that Biden is now the “President”. No issue to the older documents being discussed here.
12-Jan-23(Thu) An additional 3rd document set are found in Biden’s garage next to his 67 Corvette. Biden stated, “My Corvette’s in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,” Biden responded. “People know I take classified documents and classified materials seriously.” Easy to say, but at times actions speak louder than words.
20-Jan-23(Fri) CBS reported that FBI Investigators searched Biden’s home and found an additional 6 sets of documents.
