Garagegate: More classified documents found at Joe Biden’s home in Maryland


US President Joe Biden's legal team insists there is no comparison with Trump, but Republicans aren't buying it. Photo: Getty
In another blow to both Joe Biden’s credibility and the potential prosecution of Donald Trump, more classified documents have been uncovered at the President’s home.
Five additional pages with classified markings were discovered at the Wilmington, Delaware, home on Thursday./ They were immediately handed over to Justice Department officials.
Biden’s special counsel, Richard Sauber, said he traveled to the Biden residence to facilitate the handover to the Justice Department of a document with classified markings that was found there earlier.
“While I was transferring it to the DOJ officials who accompanied me, five additional pages with classification markings were discovered among the material with it, for a total of six pages. The DOJ officials with me immediately took possession of them,” Sauber said in a statement on Saturday.
Biden’s legal team acknowledged this week it had found classified documents relating to his time as vice-president in the Obama administration at his Delaware home, including some in his garage.
Aides previously found another batch of classified documents at his residence, and at a Washington think tank he was associated with. US Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel on Thursday to probe the matter.
‘How many more’
“How many more classified documents will they find at Joe Biden’s house?” the Republican House Judiciary Committee said in a tweet early on Saturday.
The latest revelation injects a further complication into another special counsel’s ongoing probe of Donald Trump for retaining his own cache of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, with the former president’s supporters saying the Justice Department is obliged to be consistent in their investigations.
Sauber said Biden’s lawyer acted “immediately and voluntarily” to hand over all the documents to the proper authorities.
“We have now publicly released specific details about the documents identified, how they were identified, and where they were found,” Sauber said.
“The appointment of the special counsel in this matter this week means we will now refer specific questions to the special counsel’s office moving forward.
“As I said Thursday, the White House will cooperate with the newly appointed special counsel,” he said.
Biden is spending the weekend at his Wilmington home with his wife, Jill Biden, who underwent surgery on Wednesday to remove skin lesions from her face and chest.
Biden was asked by a reporter on Thursday about the wisdom of storing important material next to his Corvette. The self-declared ‘car guy’ said both were in a locked garage.
“It’s not like they’re sitting out in the street,” he said. “People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously.”
Republicans in the US House of Representatives launched an investigation on Friday into the Justice Department’s handling of improperly stored classified documents possessed by Biden, and questioned whether his son, Hunter, had access to any.
Republicans have sought to compare the investigation of Biden’s handling of classified documents to the ongoing probe into how former President Donald Trump handled classified documents after his presidency.
The White House, however, insists the two cases are different because Biden’s team has cooperated with authorities in their probe and had turned over those documents. Trump had resisted doing so until an August FBI search at his Florida home.
Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal lawyer, said in a statement that Biden had directed his personal attorneys to be “forthcoming and fully cooperative with the National Archives and Records Administration and the Justice Department regarding the documents.
“In addition, the president’s personal attorneys have attempted to balance the importance of public transparency where appropriate with the established norms and limitations necessary to protect the investigation’s integrity,” he said.
“These considerations require avoiding the public release of detail relevant to the investigation while it is ongoing.”
-AAP