Garland letting Biden lawyers unauthorized search for classified documents draws criticism

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Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision to allow President Joe Biden’s personal attorneys who lacked security clearance to search Bidens Delaware homes for classified documents has been harshly criticized by Republicans.

Biden’s Justice Department hands-off approach has also led to allegations of double standards over how the DOJ handled the presence of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, including an unprecedented raid by the FBI in August 2022.

HUNTER BIDEN SCANDALS IMPACT JOE BIDEN CLASSIFIED DOCS SAGA

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the Justice Department had considered, but decided not to have FBI agents monitor Bidens’ personal attorneys as they searched for classified documents at two Delaware homes. The outlet said that instead of the FBI overseeing the searches, the two sides agreed that Mr. Bidens’ personal attorneys would inspect the homes, notify the Justice Department as soon as they identify any other potentially classified records. and arrange for law enforcement authorities. to take them.

Merrick Garland.

(Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner)

Bidens’ personal attorneys did not have security clearances, but the DOJ still allowed them to take over the search for classified documents.

Andrew McCarthy, former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York and editor of the National Review, said Biden’s DOJ was grossly negligent in the decision.

McCarthy said it was critical for Garland to ensure that classified evidence was acquired by government agents with the appropriate clearances, as only such agents could ensure that the evidence was retained for investigative purposes and that the national security was thus protected.

But that’s not what happened.

There would have been no problem allowing Bidens aides to attend and participate. But the search should still have been conducted primarily by law enforcement, McCarthy said, noting that Biden knew on Nov. 2 that classified records had been in his possession for more than five years at that time.

Worse still, the Bidens Justice Department knew the same things Biden knew, and still decided that Biden aides without security clearances, rather than the FBI, should conduct searches that were virtually certain to show up and , in fact, revealed more classified documents that these aides were not authorized to possess, McCarthy concluded.

The president’s attorneys have admitted that Obama-era files bearing classified marks were found in his office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington in early November, with more classified documents found in the president’s garage in Delaware in December, and other classified documents found in his Delaware home last Thursday.

Bob Bauer, one of Bidens personal attorneys, last week defended Biden’s teams dealing with the classified documents saga.

Bidens’ personal attorneys reportedly first discovered classified documents in Bidens’ possession Nov. 2 at the Penn Biden Center. Bidens’ attorneys contacted the White House Attorney’s Office and then the White House Attorney’s Office contacted the National Archives. The National Archives informed the Inspector General of the National Archives on November 3 and the Archives watchdog contacted the DOJ on November 4.

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Garland last week selected former Trump-appointed U.S. attorney Robert Hur to serve as special counsel to investigate Bidens’ potential mishandling of classified documents.

The Penn Biden Center wasn’t launched until February 2018, but the Obama-Biden administration concluded in January 2017, meaning the Justice Department immediately knew that the classified documents held at Bidens’ office in the national capital must have been elsewhere for at least a year. after his vice presidency ended, with the reasonable conclusion being that classified documents might also be present in one of Bidens’ homes.

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