(VitalNews.org) – When news first broke that the FBI was serving a search warrant on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence looking for disputed classified documents, the task of defusing the volatile public relations bombshell fell to members of the GOP. In an ironic twist of fate, the very same FBI just gave Republicans a huge political gift as agents recently completed a search on a third property belonging to President Joe Biden looking for classified documents.
Sources familiar with President Biden say comparisons between his actions and motives and those of former President Trump frustrate and anger the leader. Yet Republican leaders have pointed to a 68-day gap between the time the president’s attorneys found classified documents at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement on November 2, 2022, and a White House confirmation of a CBS News report about the discovery on January 9.
A "planned" FBI search is atypical, one attorney told Newsweek, though the mishandling of classified documents by multiple public officials is unusual. https://t.co/rYIV66ZWQe
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) February 1, 2023
Biden’s legal team found another set of classified documents in the locked garage of his Wilmington, Delaware, home on December 20. Yet the White House failed to volunteer that information when the CBS News story finally broke in January. Likewise, NBC News broke the story about the discovery of the second batch of classified records on January 11.
Biden confidantes speaking on the condition of anonymity said suggestions that Biden’s and Trump’s actions are comparable had left the POTUS livid, according to The New York Times.
Attorney General Merrick Garland chose US Attorney John Laucsh on November 14 to examine the documents and recommend whether Garland should appoint a special counsel to investigate how the classified records ended up in Biden’s possession. Lausch reported to Garland on January 5 that questions surrounding the case warranted such an appointment. Garland named Robert Hur, a former US attorney and Trump appointee, as special counsel on January 12.
On Tuesday, Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted a complaint about the Biden administration’s lack of transparency regarding the documents. On Monday, the Department of Justice and FBI refused to provide sensitive information about the ongoing investigation into the Biden documents to Jordan’s committee.
Newsweek reported Representative James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Republican leaders feared that Biden “family members” accused of “influence peddling” may have inappropriately used the documents for personal gain, a criminal offense. “When will this scavenger hunt for President Biden’s classified documents end?” Comer asked.
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