House Republicans are investigating the National Archives and Records Administration over claims of “political bias,” claiming the agency treated President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents differently than it did former President Donald Trump, according to documents released Friday.
(Bloomberg) — House Republicans are investigating the National Archives and Records Administration over claims of “political bias,” claiming the agency treated President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents differently than it did former President Donald Trump, according to documents released Friday.
House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer argued in a Jan. 11 letter that the Archives kept quiet the discovery of Biden’s classified materials days before the 2022 midterm elections. Meanwhile, Comer said, the Archives “instigated a public and unprecedented FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump’s Florida residence.
The letters were released to Bloomberg and other outlets in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. Comer had released his letter to the archives in January.
“NARA’s public enforcement of the Presidential Records Act against former President Trump while failing to disclose violations by President Biden to Committee Republicans and the American public raises concerns about inconsistent policy and procedures at the agency that creates the appearance of political bias,” Comer wrote in the letter to Debra Steidel Wall, the acting archivist.
The National Archives referred both Trump and Biden to the Department of Justice after learning that they had classified documents in unsecure locations. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed two special counsels to oversee federal investigations into how documents with classification markings ended up at private offices and residences of both Trump and Biden.
In addition, Trump rejected the Archives’ request to hand over documents in a battle that lasted a year, finally prompting the Justice Department to obtain a search warrant and to send the FBI to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to seize the papers.
Trump has claimed he should be able to keep the materials and they are personal because he declassified them in his thoughts before he left office.
Biden was holding on to classified documents at his think tank and homes, but has cooperated with the Justice Department and the Archives and invited the FBI to come retrieve the documents. He did not, however, publicize the discovery until after the midterm elections.
Wall countered in a Jan. 23 response that the Archives had followed their protocol of confidentiality in both cases.
The raid at Trump’s home was made public in a local news report.
“Our actions and responses with respect to both of these matters have been entirely consistent and without any political bias,” Wall wrote.
The release of the letters comes just days after Comer publicly launched his panel’s investigation into the Biden family’s financial dealings. The handling of classified documents appears to be a separate area of inquiry for the committee.
Separately, two Senate Republicans — Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson — wrote Wall last month demanding answers on the Archives’ handling of the matters, particularly the documents discovered at the Penn Biden Center think tank. Wall directed them to the Justice Department “with respect to their ongoing investigation of this matter.”
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