CBS News claims that “top secret” information was discovered in documents discovered in President Joe Biden’s private office.
The article does not reveal the contents of the ten classified documents retrieved from Biden’s presidential office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C… Still, a federal law enforcement official has confirmed to the source that they include top-secret material.
U.S. intelligence memoranda and briefing materials on Iran, Ukraine, and the U.K. were among the confidential documents discovered in Biden’s private academic office, a source previously told CNN. The time that Joe Biden was not serving as vice president and before he was elected president was spent by Biden in office as he served as an honorary professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
In the United States, information is classified as confidential, secret, or top secret, depending on its sensitivity. The leaking of classified information without proper authorization might result in “exceptionally significant damage to the national security,” as stated by Cornell University’s law school.
The Justice Department is looking into Biden’s document management practices. Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that he had hired former U.S. Attorney Robert Hur as special counsel to continue the investigation begun by former U.S. Attorney John Lausch. As the crisis grew, Republicans in the House also opened their probes.
According to Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, Biden’s attorneys uncovered the first batch of records on November 2, days before the midterm elections. They promptly contacted the National Archives. The records review by the DOJ was unknown to the public until last week when it was reported in media reports.
Following that news, the White House claimed that the president’s legal team discovered a second cache of secret paperwork from Biden’s tenure as president at his house in Wilmington. On Saturday, the White House said that further classified materials had been found in the home.
Sauber stated on Wednesday that one document was located in a room next to the garage, but legal counsel ceased their investigation due to a lack of security clearances. Sauber arrived at the residence on Thursday to resume the search after receiving the necessary approval. During the handoff to the DOJ officers who followed Sauber, “five additional pages with classified marks were discovered among the documents with it, for a total of six pages,” he claimed. The Department of Justice employees with me at the time took custody of them.
The personal attorney for Biden, Bob Bauer, delivered a statement on Saturday detailing the circumstances leading up to the arrest.
Biden had previously told reporters that he was “surprised” to hear about the discovery of the confidential documents and that he did not know what was included within the files. According to Biden, “it’s common knowledge” that he treats sensitive materials and information with the utmost respect.
White House spokesperson Josh Sauber has stated that the administration is “fully working” with the National Archives and the Department of Justice.