Confidential documents found at Biden: the president in turmoil, the Republicans on the offensive

In the back of the garage, next to his green convertible Corvette, in a small locked cupboard.

It was there, in President Biden's private residence in Wilmington, Delaware, that "a small number" of top secret documents dating from the Obama administration were discovered in December.

At the beginning of November, a dozen other confidential documents had been found in a former office of the think tank of the current president, in Washington…

These successive revelations by the CBS and then NBC channels triggered a strong political and media storm, to the dismay of a president taken completely on the wrong foot and who intended to present this Thursday to the country the encouraging results of the fight against inflation. .

Alas for him, the progress against the dear life went to the ace.

And when an incredulous reporter asked him if it was true that top-secret documents had been left next to his beloved Corvette, he snapped, "It's not like it's parked in the street, the garage was locked".

Republicans fume and gloat

Joe Biden is in turmoil.

His own Justice Minister Merrick Garland on Thursday appointed a special prosecutor, Robert Hur, to shed light on the case and decide whether Barack Obama's former vice president broke the law by keeping these documents, which date from 2017. but deal with Iran, Ukraine and other sensitive issues.

And the Republicans are fuming… and jubilant!

First, because Biden's team discovered the documents in early November, before the crucial midterm elections, and only now is the country aware.

It's a low blow, it could have changed the situation if the voters had known it, said in substance the new boss of the Republicans in the House Kevin McCarthy.

The White House counters that as soon as the documents were discovered, the National Archives were alerted, under normal administrative procedure.

The Archives did retrieve the files the next day but the media was left in the dark… Until the scoop from CBS…

Secondly, because the Democrats have mercilessly criticized President Trump for taking hundreds of top secret documents with him to Florida after his defeat.

A special prosecutor, another, had just been appointed by Mr. Garland to investigate this affair, an investigation all the more delicate since Trump declared his candidacy for the presidential election of 2024… On the strength of their short majority in the House, the Republicans have promised to monitor the affair.

"Inadvertently lost"

Unprecedented situation, two American presidents, the current one and his predecessor, thus find themselves with the same troubles.

But there is no equivalence, protest the Democrats.

They argue that the documents held at Joe Biden's house, some twenty apparently, were immediately turned over to the competent authorities.

His attorney Richard Sauber said Biden would continue to cooperate with the special prosecutor.

“A thorough examination will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced,” he added.

Trump refuses to cooperate.

The billionaire maintains that these files had been declassified by him, which he cannot legally do.

It was the FBI itself, armed with a warrant, which had to carry out the searches in his Mar-a-Lago residence and more than 300 confidential documents had been recovered in August.

Until recently, Trump denounced the politicization of justice.

But the other day on Truth Social, his social network, he asked, “When will the FBI raid Joe Biden's many homes, maybe even the White House?

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