President Joe Biden downplayed the material — including classified documents — discovered at his Delaware home and personal office in Washington, saying his understanding was federal agents took “stray papers” and items that dated to the 1970s.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden downplayed the material — including classified documents — discovered at his Delaware home and personal office in Washington, saying his understanding was federal agents took “stray papers” and items that dated to the 1970s.
“The best of my knowledge, the kind of things they picked up are things that are from 1974, stray papers,” Biden said in an interview with PBS NewsHour. “There may be something else, I don’t know.”
Biden went on to lay blame for the documents on staff that packed up his offices. His lawyers have previously said that the documents encompassed material from his time as vice president, and serving in the Senate.
“What was not done well is, as they packed up my offices to move them, they didn’t do the kind of job that should have been done to go thoroughly through every single piece of literature that’s there,” Biden said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland last month appointed Robert Hur, a former US attorney, as special counsel to investigate Biden’s handling of the documents. Biden said he had voluntarily opened up his home and papers for a search as part of the investigation.
“No one’s had to threaten to do anything,” Biden said, adding he “invited” an hours-long search of his home. He added that his lawyers had advised him not to speak on the issue, out of fear his comments might be seen as an attempt “to prejudice the investigation that’s going on.”
The revelations about classified material improperly held by Biden came after Garland had already appointed a special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump’s possession of classified material. Investigators are examining whether the former president deliberately removed records that belonged in the National Archives, or intentionally thwarted efforts to have material returned.
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