WEDNESDAY 1/11/23

President Biden responded to news of an investigation into classified documents found locked in a closet in the Washington office he used between his vice presidency and presidency during his trip to Mexico, where he met with the country’s president, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Biden told reporters he “was surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken to that office,” The Washington Post reports.

The Justice Department has launched an investigation, led by John R. Lausch, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois – a Trump nominee -- into the documents discovered last November at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy & Global Engagement. About 10 documents were returned to the National Archives.

Meanwhile, the GOP House: House Republicans have formed a committee to investigate the investigators. The committee plans to investigate government agencies and people that have investigated former President Trump, WaPo says.

--TL

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Classified Documents in Biden's Office

TUESDAY 1/10/23

The Justice Department has begun a review of about 10 classified documents found in a Washington, D.C. office (above) used by Joe Biden between his vice presidency and his 2020 campaign for president (The Washington Post). The documents, discovered in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy & Global Engagement last November 2 were “quickly given to the National Archives,” WaPo says. 

Biden opened the University of Pennsylvania think tank in downtown Washington in mid-2017. The president’s personal attorneys reportedly discovered the files when the office was being vacated to make space for a new occupant. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, John R. Lausch Jr., a Trump administration nominee, to oversee the review. 

“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.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa