MEXICO CITY — President Biden kept classified documents about Ukraine and Iran at his former think tank office, a new report revealed Tuesday as the president claimed he had no idea what the papers contained.
CNN reported that 10 documents with classified markings and dated between 2013 and 2016 were found mixed in with Biden family papers — including information about the funeral arrangements for the president’s late son, Beau, who died in 2015. Some of the documents were reportedly labeled “top secret,” the highest level of government classification.
The three-year time frame covers major events that took place during the Obama administration — including the Iran nuclear deal of 2015, the Maidan Revolution that overthrew then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russia’s subsequent invasion and annexation of Crimea in February of 2014.
It also includes the start of first son Hunter Biden’s association with Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma, which hired the now-52-year-old to serve on its board in the spring of 2014 — despite Hunter having no experience in the energy industry.
Records recovered from Hunter Biden’s laptop and revealed by The Post in the fall of 2020 show how the then-second son introduced a top Burisma executive to his father, who oversaw the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy as vice president. In one email, sent around the time of Hunter’s hiring, Burisma board adviser Vadym Pozharskyi asked Hunter for “advice on how you could use your influence” to boost the company.
During a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Biden claimed in his first public comment about the situation that “I take classified documents, or classified information seriously.”
“When my lawyers were clearing out my office at the University of Pennsylvania — they set up an office for me, a secure office in the Capitol when I — for four years after being vice president, I was a professor at Penn — they found some documents in a box in a locked cabinet, or at least a closet,” the president tried to explain. “And as soon as they did they realized there were several classified documents in that box. And they did what they should have done. They immediately called the [National] Archives — immediately called the Archives, turned them over to the Archives.
“And I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office,” Biden went on. “But I don’t know what’s in the documents. My lawyers have not suggested I ask what documents they were. I’ve turned over the boxes, they’ve turned over the boxes to the Archives, and we’re cooperating fully, cooperating fully with the review, which I hope will be finished soon and there’ll be more detail at that time.”
The latest on President Biden’s classified docs scandal
- Biden calls classified docs ‘stray papers,’ blames aides who packed up White House office
- Hunter Biden’s shady biz partner handled transfer of Joe’s Senate papers to Delaware
- National Archives blocked from revealing Biden classified docs find by WH or DOJ: source
Chicago US Attorney John Lausch, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, has submitted a preliminary report on the documents to Attorney General Merrick Garland, who will decide on next steps, CNN reported.
The discovery complicates Democratic efforts to push for criminal charges against former President Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents removed from the White House and stored at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
Key details remain unknown about the Biden office discovery, including who oversaw the storage of the documents at the center.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken — who is also in Mexico City for the North American Leaders’ Summit — was the center’s managing director in 2018 and top White House adviser Steve Ricchetti was its managing director in 2019.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees demanded Tuesday to be briefed on the documents Biden left behind.
“This discovery of classified information would put President Biden in potential violation of laws protecting national security, including the Espionage Act and Presidential Records Act,” House intel committee chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) wrote to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. “Those entrusted with access to classified information have a duty and an obligation to protect it. This issue demands a full and thorough review.”
Senate intelligence committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) was more circumspect, saying: “Our system of classification exists in order to protect our most important national security secrets, and we expect to be briefed on what happened both at Mar-a-Lago and the Biden office as part of our constitutional oversight obligations. From what we know so far, the latter is about finding documents with markings, and turning them over, which is certainly different from a months-long effort to retain material actively being sought by the government.
“But again,” Warner added, “that’s why we need to be briefed.”
The White House announced Monday night that the documents were discovered by Biden’s personal lawyers on Nov. 2, 2022, while they were “packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space.”
Special counsel to the president Richard Sauber said Biden used the office from “mid-2017 until the start of the 2020 campaign” in April 2019.
It’s unclear whether Garland learned of the documents before or after Nov. 18, when he appointed veteran prosecutor Jack Smith to serve as special counsel to investigate Trump’s handling of classified documents as well as helm separate probes of the 45th president’s effort to challenge the results of the 2020 election — citing a desire to insulate the probes from political pressure due to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. According to CNN, Garland tapped Lausch to conduct an initial review of the documents to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest had he given it to Smith or a Biden-appointed US Attorney.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that his committee would launch its own investigation, dashing off letters to the National Archives and the White House counsel’s office demanding more information.
“For months, [the National Archives and Records Administration] failed to disclose to Committee Republicans or the American public that President Biden—after serving as Vice President—stored highly classified documents in a closet at his personal office,” Comer wrote to acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall. “NARA learned about these documents days before the 2022 midterm elections and did not alert the public that President Biden was potentially violating the law.
“Meanwhile, NARA instigated a public and unprecedented FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago—former President Trump’s home—to retrieve presidential records,” the lawmaker added. “NARA’s inconsistent treatment of recovering classified records held by former President Trump and President Biden raises questions about political bias at the agency.”
Garland has resisted calls to appoint a special counsel to investigate the Biden family’s international business dealings, including Hunter Biden’s possible tax fraud and illegal foreign lobbying, even though the president says he intends to seek a second term in 2024.
Joe Biden earned nearly $1 million from the University of Pennsylvania as an honorary professor from 2017 to 2019, despite just nine reported public engagements with students. After becoming president, he nominated the university’s longtime president, Amy Gutmann, to be the US ambassador to Germany.
Critics previously took aim at Biden’s role at the school, noting that the Ivy League college received $54.6 million in donations from China from 2014 through June 2019, including $23.1 million in anonymous gifts starting in 2016, according to public records.
