The search of Vice President Joe Biden’s house by the FBI and the finding of additional classified materials heightened the gravity of the scandal surrounding his secret documents and exacerbated the political impact over the weekend, and things are expected to become even worse.
CNN reported that Biden’s personal attorneys argued that Friday’s search demonstrated his cooperation with a special counsel investigation, implicitly differentiating him from former President Donald Trump’s behavior in his own classified documents scandal. This is a ridiculous point of view that denies the gravity of the situation.
Even the Democrats in office can’t honestly defend Biden.
“When that information is found, it diminishes the stature of any person who is in possession of it, because it’s not supposed to happen,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Whether it was the fault of a staffer or an attorney, it makes no difference. The elected official bears ultimate responsibility,” the Illinois Democrat added.
“A fifth stash of classified docs leaves Biden with few credible defenses to chargeable crimes,” Greg Jarrett, a conservative news commentator, author and attorney, reported on the details of the search, adding:
“Every new disclosure prompts a head-banging rationalization from the president and his White House apologists. Corn Pop did it. That’ll be Joe Biden’s next alibi yanked from his bag of convenient excuses.”
Since the beginning of November, this is the seventh finding of classified information at Biden’s house in Wilmington, Delaware, as revealed on Saturday. It resembles an endless treasure quest for top-secret wealth. Every fresh revelation elicits a head-banging justification from the president and his White House defenders.
The first stray records discovered in his private office were deemed “inadvertent.” The second cache of documents he concealed in his garage qualified for forgiveness under the controversial “Corvette defense.” As additional confidential documents surfaced, Biden’s whack-a-mole rebuttals became increasingly absurd. In a moment of astounding defiance and arrogance, he expressed “no remorse” for endangering national security. He insists that he “takes classified documents seriously.” However, there is a longstanding joke in Washington that he just steals sensitive materials.
Last Thursday, Biden asserted that “there is nothing there.” The following day, during a nearly 13-hour investigation of his Delaware home, the Department of Justice — and presumably the FBI – discovered more “there, there” “Six objects comprising of classified papers” were confiscated and transported away. Some dated back to Biden’s time as vice president. Others were surprisingly from his 36 years as a senator. Notes written by hand were seized. I’ll return to that shortly.
Jarrett went on:
You’ll recall that more than ten days ago, Biden’s inept press secretary promised everyone that the search for classified records was complete and that nothing more existed. Her assurance, which almost no one believed, was spectacularly untrue. Suffice it to say that Karine Jean-Pierre’s evaporated credibility is exceeded only by her propensity for self-mockery. But don’t expect the dissembling and lies to cease. It will only escalate as the evidence against Biden builds.
More on this story via The Republic Brief:
In my last column, I argued that Biden is at greater risk of criminal jeopardy than Donald Trump. Beyond a difference in the declassification authority of a president versus a vice president, the growing number of different locations where classified records were unlawfully stored renders Biden’s “inadvertent” defense increasingly implausible. It rises to the level of knowing and intentional. With each new discovery, Biden’s conduct seems willful and deliberate. CONTINUE READING…