This is an additional twist in a case that is proving increasingly delicate for the American president. Five pages of confidential documents, which date from the period of the vice-presidency of Joe Biden (2009-2017), were found in a room adjacent to the garage of the family home of the president of the United States, in Wilmington (Delaware) . This is what the White House announced on Saturday January 14.
The case of the discovery of files, which became public this week, had started in an office in Washington, November 2, 2022. That day, at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank where Joe Biden once had an office, a dozen documents were found.
The Biden administration did not reveal the affair until the midterm elections, held on November 8, likely fearing a negative impact on the outcome of the poll. On December 20, the president’s lawyers then got hold of “a small number of potentially confidential documents” in the garage of the Wilmington house, and notified the Department of Justice.
Special prosecutor appointed to investigate Biden case
On Wednesday, January 11, Joe Biden’s personal lawyers also found, in a room next to the garage, a page marked as a confidential document. Not having the necessary authorizations to consult this kind of documents, these lawyers did not push their research further and also warned the ministry, specified the lawyer of the White House, Richard Sauber. The latter, who has the necessary authorizations, went to Wilmington on Thursday evening and discovered five other pages there, making a total of six pages of classified documents. He said that the representatives of the Ministry of Justice who accompanied him “immediately” took possession of it.
In an effort to defuse accusations of political interference, Justice Minister Merrick Garland appointed a special prosecutor, Robert Hur, to investigate Joe Biden’s documents file. Robert Hur had been appointed to the post of federal prosecutor in Maryland, from 2018 to 2021, by Donald Trump. He’s a longtime Republican, precise the New York Times. Under Merrick Garland’s order, Robert Hur is authorized to prosecute crimes arising from the investigation or to refer cases for prosecution to federal prosecutors in other jurisdictions, recalls the American daily.
The case hurts all the more for Joe Biden as his predecessor, Donald Trump, is also in the sights of justice for having taken boxes of confidential documents when leaving the White House. According to government court findings, the FBI recovered more than 300 classified documents and thousands of unclassified government documents in August 2022, from its residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. Donald Trump’s attitude had been described as “irresponsible” by Joe Biden in the fall.
Prosecution of Trump ‘very unlikely’
Congress declared in 1978 that all documents created or received by the President and Vice President in the course of their duties belonged to the United States. Under this law, at the end of the mandate, all emails, letters, photos, videos and working documents from the White House must be sent to the National Archives. Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump appear to have broken these rules.
On November 18, 2022, Merrick Garland had judged “in the public interest” to instruct Jack Smith to resume two investigations carried out for months by American justice. The first concerns the efforts of the Republican billionaire to change the results of the 2020 presidential election; the second on his management of the White House archives.
After having gathered all the elements, the special prosecutor “will exercise his professional judgment independently to decide whether there should be an indictment”, in one or the other of these files, had specified Merrick Garland. However, the special prosecutor will only be responsible for making a recommendation and it will be up to the Minister of Justice to decide.
“The lawsuits concerning the concealment of confidential documents from Donald Trump were the ones that had the best chance of succeeding: Merrick Garland had all the material he needed to indict him”, explains at Figaro Jean-Eric Branaa. From now on, according to the lecturer at the University of Paris II, a specialist in the United States, “the fact that similar facts are now attributable to the incumbent president makes it very unlikely that any legal action against Donald Trump will take place” insofar as “these depend directly on the minister, even if the investigative work has been entrusted to a special prosecutor”. In other words, according to Jean-Eric Branaa, “Merrick Garland is trapped”.
“The succession of discoveries at Joe Biden has ruined any defense he can bring to the ‘non-gravity’ of his case”, adds Jean-Eric Branaa on Twitter. However, according to the writer Dominique Simonnet, co-author with Nicole Bacharan of the book The Great Days That Changed America (Perrin, 2021), “with the elements we have to date, we can think that there was negligence on the side of Joe Biden and a desire to subtract on the side of Donald Trump”, he explained on Friday at L’Express. This is also the line of defense chosen by the Biden camp. “We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the President and his attorneys acted quickly upon discovery of this error,” said Richard Sauber.
Republicans on the offensive
With their new majority in the House of Representatives, the Republicans intend to exploit any potential Democratic flaw, with the 2024 presidential election in sight. They intend to investigate the subject, in particular thanks to a commission of the House of Representatives chaired by the elected Republican of Kentucky, James Comer.
On Friday, he sent a broad records request to the White House legal counsel’s office, seeking any classified documents that Joe Biden or his aides had recovered. As related by New York TimesJames Comer also requested a complete list of aides and attorneys involved in the search for additional classified documents and their security clearances, all locations searched, and all communications between White House officials, the Department of Justice and the National Archives on this subject.
“The Biden White House secrecy in this case is disturbing. Equally disturbing is the fact that aides to Joe Biden combed through documents knowing that a special prosecutor would be appointed,” James Comer said in a statement. communicated.
But the Republicans’ room for maneuver is limited. Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor said she believes the work of Special Prosecutor Robert Hur, who therefore has the power to recommend criminal charges, could thwart the efforts of congressional Republicans. Moreover, the “Grand Old Party” (GOP) can hardly attack Joe Biden without further incriminating… Donald Trump.