It was planned and expected, Joe Biden was questioned as part of the investigation into a series of confidential official documents found in a former office as well as in his family home, the White House announced on Monday October 9.
The interrogation, described as “voluntary”, took place on Sunday and Monday according to the American executive, which said that “the president and the White House are cooperating” with the investigation, led by a special prosecutor. This is Robert Hur, former Maryland prosecutor and ex-executive of the department, also in the private sector.
“As we have said all along, the President and the White House are cooperating in the investigation, and, where appropriate, we have publicly provided relevant information,” said House Press Secretary Ian Sams. Blanche, emphasizing the administration’s desire to be “transparent” while protecting the integrity of the investigation.
At the end of 2022, a series of confidential documents, the exact number and content of which remain unknown, were found either in an office occupied by Joe Biden in a Washington think tank, or in his house in Wilmington, Delaware, on the east coast of the United States.
These documents date back to the Democrat’s vice-presidency (2009-2017) and his three decades in the Senate, during which he was heavily involved in foreign policy.
Embarrassment
According to government rules, access to classified documents is limited to accredited individuals and the items must be kept in secure cabinets. According to the Presidential Records Act, official documents, classified or not, must also be deposited in the National Archives after the departure of an administration.
The Democratic president’s administration had confirmed that a “small number of classified documents” – about ten – had been found in a “locked closet” at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank where Joe Biden once had a desk. “I was surprised to learn that government-related documents had been taken to this office. But I don’t know what’s in the documents,” the president then told the press.
These discoveries had plunged the White House into embarrassment because they evoke a case of official archives taken in large numbers to Florida by former Republican President Donald Trump.
Several members of the Republican Party were quick to draw a parallel with the facts alleged against Donald Trump, who held full boxes of them at his residence in Florida, and were indignant at the differences in treatment on the part of the security forces. order, which they accuse of using double standards.
In both cases, the possession of these documents is therefore illegal, regardless of their number, their content and the conditions in which they were stored. But retaining and moving classified documents is generally considered prosecutable only if it is an intentional step, particularly if there was an intention to conceal it.