The White House confirmed that classified documents were found at Biden’s Wilmington home.
Washington:
Secret documents first surfaced in Joe Biden’s former private office and home in November, but it was January when the White House publicly acknowledged the embarrassing discovery – under pressure from a steady drip of media revelations.
Since then, searches of the president’s home have uncovered several more sets of classified files in a snowballing case threatening to overshadow the Democrat’s expected announcement that he will seek a second term in 2024.
Here’s a timeline of developments in the saga:
November 2, 2022
Between 2017 – after the end of his term as Barack Obama’s vice president – and the launch of his 2020 campaign, while vacating an office sometimes used by Biden, Biden’s personal attorneys ” A small number of documents” were found classified as one. locked cell.
The next day, the documents are handed over to the National Archives, as US presidents and vice presidents are required to do when they leave office.
The White House made no public announcement of the search, which comes a week before crucial midterm elections, and at a time when Biden’s Republican predecessor Donald Trump is being investigated for mishandling hundreds of classified files.
November 9, 2022
The Justice Department launched an investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
December 20, 2022
Biden’s personal lawyers found more documents in the garage of his family home in Wilmington, Delaware, where the 80-year-old president often spends weekends.
The lawyers inform the Department of Justice and hand over the documents.
The White House has yet to make a public statement on either finding.
January 9, 2023
The White House, responding to media reports for the first time, confirmed that secret papers were found in Biden’s office, but made no mention of documents found at his home in Wilmington.
January 10, 2023
At a news conference in Mexico, where Biden is on an official trip, the president says he was “surprised” to learn about the classified document searches and doesn’t know what’s in them.
January 12, 2023
The White House confirms that a “small number” of classified documents were found in storage areas and the library of Biden’s Wilmington home.
Facing uproar in opposition ranks, US Attorney General Merrick Garland named Trump-appointed Robert Hurr as special counsel to investigate the matter.
Biden’s spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, told the press that the search of his Wilmington home was completed on the night of January 11.
January 14, 2023
In a new twist, the White House says a lawyer found five additional pages of classified material at Biden’s home in Delaware — just a day earlier, on Jan. 13.
The total number of documents found at Biden’s home and his Washington office has been unclear at this stage — the White House referred to documents, pages or “items” — and no details have been released on their level of classification. .
January 19, 2023
Traveling in California, Biden downplays the uproar over the documents, declaring that “there’s nothing out there” and that he has “no regrets.”
January 21, 2023
Bob Bauer, the president’s personal attorney, announced that six more classified documents had been found at Biden’s Delaware home.
Unlike previous searches, the latest search was conducted by the US Department of Justice – at the invitation of the President, according to his lawyers – and lasted from 9:45 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
The latest find included documents from Biden’s tenure as vice president from 2009 to 2017, but also his decades-long career in the Senate.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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