The US Attorney General appointed a special investigator following the discovery of secret documents at Joe Biden’s residence and an office he has at his property in Wilmington, Delaware, according to AFP. It is the second batch of such documents that have been found. According to the New York Times, they were found in a storage room in Biden’s garage. The documents are the same ones that were mentioned by NBC News on Wednesday, the White House confirms. Several American media report that the document is from the period when Barack Obama was president. According to Biden’s special adviser Richard Sauber, it is a matter of a “small number” of documents that are classified as classified. The Penn Biden Center houses the former office of President Joe Biden, where potentially classified documents were found in what should have been a locked cabinet. Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP This is the second time in three days that Biden’s aides have reported missing documents. A further 12 were discovered in a “locked cupboard” at the Penn Biden Center this autumn, writes the news agency Ap. They were announced on Monday. – After I was informed of the discovery, I was surprised that any government document was taken out of that office, Joe Biden said on Tuesday at a press conference in Mexico. – I do not know what is in those documents, the president added, but said that he “takes classified documents seriously”. Press hard The White House has been transparent about the discovery of the classified documents, said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in the White House during a press conference on Thursday. A hard-pressed press secretary was asked several questions about the secret documents. Repeatedly she said that she did not want to go into detail about the case and referred to the Ministry of Justice. – We are trying to do this by the book, she commented. – This is now in the hands of the Ministry of Justice. During the press conference, it was repeated several times that the president was surprised by the discovery of the document. – He takes this very seriously, said Karine Jean-Pierre, and indicated that the president would cooperate during the investigation. news has asked four questions to the US experts Erik Løkke and Jennifer Leigh Bailey about how they interpret what has happened. What will be the consequences of the new findings? Løkke, who is a consultant at the Civita think tank, believes that it will be harmful for the Democrats in any case that several classified documents have gone astray on their watch. – The question is just how harmful it will be. It is irresponsible of Joe Biden and his administration. Then one needs to know more about what has happened. Is it a so-called honest mistake, i.e. real sloppiness, or is there something more serious, i.e. deliberate evasions that have happened here? We don’t know that, and we have to find out. Eirik Løkke is an expert on the USA and a consultant at the think tank Civita. Photo: Tobias Prosch Simonsen Attorney General Merrick Garland is now consulting with the US Department of Justice to decide whether Biden will be assigned a special investigator. Løkke believes it will be a great advantage for Biden and his politics if he gets an independent investigator who is also appointed by Trump to go through the background and cause of what has happened. Nevertheless, he believes that the two finds say something about Biden’s intention to be president in general. – I think there is probably an argument that Biden should not run again. He is over 80 years old, and when he says that he is surprised that there were classified documents there, and that new classified documents have been found, one can also wonder if Joe Biden’s age also plays a role here, that is that he doesn’t remember well enough. – Do you think the president is becoming forgetful? – At group level, i.e. only in general when you turn 80, your cognitive skills weaken, although there are of course individual differences. You can make up your own mind about it. I also generally think that age affects Biden more now than before, which is not surprising. If you are 80 years old, then in my opinion you have little to do in the White House. Biden turned 80 in November. Never before has a president of the United States had so many candles on his birthday cake. Photo: Andrew Harnik / AP How should one interpret the reaction in the Republican Party? The discovery has lit a new fuse among the Republicans, especially with former President Donald Trump, who earlier this week wrote on his own social media platform Truth Social: – When will the FBI come to search the many homes of Joe Biden, maybe even the White House ? These documents were definitely not degradated. Trump himself is being investigated for taking care of documents that should have been locked in the national archives after the presidential term was over. American Jennifer Leigh Bailey, who is a professor of political science at NTNU, has followed closely on Twitter after the news became known. – It is not the best time for reflective debate in the USA, she says with a laugh. Jennifer Leigh Bailey says the members of the Republican Party have now had blood on their teeth. Photo: NTNU – The climate now is that the Republicans have blood on their teeth, and they will use everything possible to use this further. They believe that this shows that Biden is just as bad as Hilary. Instead of addressing the findings at Trump’s personal address in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, Leigh Bailey says that several Republicans draw lines to the email scandal surrounding Hillary Clinton in 2016. – Although Hilary has been investigated in many years and nothing has come of it, they keep bringing it up today, saying that neither she nor Biden is capable of processing important information. Regardless of whether the new document findings are considered serious or not, she believes that they “undermine the credibility of the Democrats”. – It’s easy to take something out of context and say “that sounds really crazy!” And it does, one must keep secret documents secret, and one must take it very seriously. But how unusual is it, how serious is the offence? We lack context to know that. Biden’s opponents link the discovery of classified documents to Hillary Clinton’s email scandal, says Leigh-Bailey. Photo: MARK MAKELA / AFP Can it be compared to the discovery of classified documents in Mar-a-Lago? If the Department of Justice in the United States appoints a special investigator to investigate Biden, the process will then be similar to the one that was started about Trump after the discovery in Mar-a-Lago. Leigh Bailey still believes that one should be careful in comparing the two cases. – It is a quantum leap from what Trump has done, I think, based on what I understand today, she says. – The Ministry of Justice says that the two cases must be assessed separately. Officially, one should not affect the other, but it is clear that it affects the situation politically. That put the Democrats somewhat in a defensive position, and they must strive to show how the two situations are different from each other. Some of the documents that the FBI requested from Trump’s home in Florida. Photo: JOSE ROMERO / AFP Løkke also says that the differences between these cases appear to be significant. – What is the case with the Trump dossier is that Donald Trump took with him substantial amounts of classified information. So, only the number on the document is much larger than those linked to Biden. Trump and his lawyers have access to the government and the National Archives. – Biden and his team, on the other hand, have cooperated with the governing authorities all the way. They were the ones who uncovered this, alerted the National Archives immediately, and have returned the documentation. So only there are very, very big differences. How will this affect the political divide in the United States? – This is so-called “whatabout-ism” served on a silver platter. Most voters will not go into reality very much. They will realize that ok, there are classified documents in both cases. Look how badly they treat Trump, and look how kind they are to Biden. According to Løkke, this will be highlighted as yet another example of how the authorities, the FBI and the state in the USA are rigged against the Republican Party. Eirik Løkke believes that the discovery of these classified documents is a “gift package for Donald Trump”. The picture is from an election meeting in 2020. Photo: CARLOS BARRIA / Reuters He also believes that the disclosure of classified documents for which Biden is responsible is a “gift package for Donald Trump”. – At the very least, this may also be the closest thing to saving Trump’s political career. It is clear that it will now be more difficult for the Ministry of Justice and Minister of Justice Merrick Garland to proceed with the investigation of the documents in Mar-a-Lago. – I am not sure if Garland will take care of it, but it is clear that the political game, how this looks, makes it more difficult to prosecute the former president.
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Special investigator to examine document findings at Biden’s residence and office – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
