On Monday, CBS News published a report saying that "a small number" of classified documents had been discovered while cleaning out Joe Biden's old office at the Penn Biden Center. Subsequent reports put the number of documents at about ten.
On Wednesday, NBC News reported that more classified documents had been found in Biden's garage at his home in Wilmington. Later reports put the number at about ten.
On Thursday, the attorney general appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the situation.
Today the White House announced that another six classified documents had been found in a room "adjacent" to the garage.
Shortly after the first report I called this whole thing a nothingburger, and I stand by that on substantive grounds. But on media grounds, I said that one reason the story didn't have legs was because "there's no reason to think that any further documents will be found, which would have provided the drip-drip-drip that stories like this need to stay alive."
That was sure wrong! It's been a whole week of drip-drip-drip so far, and who knows what will happen next. There's still probably nothing here, but there's not much question that it will be a media show for quite a while.
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As we saw with Hillary's emailgate, it's pretty common for high-level federal government officials to get a little sloppy with their handling of classified material. I think a lot of people figure, "oh, I have a staff and they'll put everything back where it belongs" or something. The questions are: Was it intentional? How sensitive was the classified information (e.g. notes on a meeting with the PM of Iceland regarding fishing treaties vs. nuclear codes) and 3. if the information was top secret/highly sensitive, was any of it compromised. In Trump's case, the answers are 1. Yes. 2. Very and 3. we don't know the full extent yet, but very likely because the FBI got a search warrant for Mar-A-Lago based in part on possible violations of the Espionage Act. Trump has all but admitted that he stole the stuff because he could declassify it with his brain, which of course is not how anything works.
The Biden situation seems to be 1. unintentional, 2. involve a small number of documents, the classification level of which has not been disclosed, and it does not appear that, although not properly secured, any of the information was disclosed or fell into the hands of people not authorized to see it. Hopefully the SC will answer those questions quickly and we can move on. But, as Kevin suggests, I'm sure the media is absolutely slavering over this. Not only to they love the drip, drip drip angle, but then covering the GOP's ridiculous attempts to equate this with what Trump did becomes another exciting new angle to cover. Rinse and repeat.
I don’t believe the number of documents, or their classification level, carry much weight, legally. Intent counts a lot, but can be difficult to prove. The big difference is that TFG is at serious risk of being charged with obstruction, and it appears Biden is not at all, TFG lied about having the documents, failed to give them up on being requested by legitimate authority, and concealed and retained some after claiming to have complied. Which actions, by the way, are also evidence of intent.
Biden's not going to get indicted for this, for the reasons you lay out. But unfortunately, therefore, neither is Trump. Let's be real.
Also, Biden wasn't keeping them in a country club stuffed full of foreign intelligence assets.
Where every Tom, Dick or Vladimir might see them?
And every Xi, Kim and King of Arabia, and anywhere else he might think of licensing his incredibly powerful and expensive personal branding.
The Republicans went after Hillary Clinton concerning classified documents. There wasn't anything there--but they dragged it out forever. They found one minor slip up, no damage done, out of 10's of thousands of documents.
The Republicans knew there was nothing there, but they also knew that they had to give the political press & the voters a way to say "we that that woman!" without saying "we hate that woman!"
Just like raging opposition to Obamacare was the way they could safely object to the president being black.
This cloud gives Biden an excuse to bow out of the 2024 primary. 🤞
Let's not get carried away. Maybe this metastasizes into something truly ugly. Who knows? But I doubt it. To me this suggests: A) Trump is off the hook (which is a very different animal from saying Biden is on the hook) and, B) the executive branch documents-handling system needs an overhaul.
When I say Trump is off the hook I don't mean Trump committed no crimes. I mean the optics of the situation likely mean DOJ won't proceed against him on this matter. They may well proceed against him on treason, and we've likewise yet to hear from Georgia.
Nah, anybody who mishandles, obstructs, or jeopardizes national security because of classified material needs to be held accountable.
Everyone. We have laws or we don’t. The alternative is to let any government employee do it.
I agree with you on what should happen: Trump ought to be charged with crimes (at least based on my reading).
I don't agree with you, though, if you maintain this is what's actually going to happen.
I’m not in the business of predicting the future. But I do have a follow on question:
In the absence of documents found recently regarding Biden, did you think Trump was ever likely to be charged for his possession and subsequent withholding of classified material?
Per my reading, there is a fairly strong case against him, yes. IANAL, and I'm not sure to what extent probability of conviction is supposed to be weighed in criminal cases. So perhaps that's a consideration, and I'd not go out on a limb claiming an indictment on the documents matter was a sure thing. I don't know what kind of number I'd put on the likelihood of criminal charges. 50%? 60%?
But I think that number has now realistically dwindled toward zero.
I realize not everyone views it this way, but that is honestly how I see things. In cases with enormous political ramifications, optics, perceptions of fairness and, yes, politics, matter. I wish this weren't so, but my wishes are neither here nor there.
I guess I’m wired differently, but I don’t except “optics” as a valid reason to abandon the rule of law. I’ll hold Garland to his line about “follow the facts wherever they lead.”
If an intoxicated Person X gets behind the wheel and kills five people, should Person X have his chances of prosecution “dwindled toward zero” just because drunk Person Y lucked out and made it home unscathed? Prosecuting them both is the only correct answer in a rule of law nation. Regardless of Person X/Y’s fame, fortune, or job title.
Oh sure, Foxlandia will give its usual primal scream performance, working hard to conflate the events. They wrote the playbook on Working the Refs For Dummies™, after all. But consider, we’re talking about a political movement that to this day chants “lock her up” and a cable news network that promotes January 6th as overblown, or just tourists, or Antifa, or political prisoners, or whatabout the summer riots, or it was valid political speech. …….So eff ‘em.
Sometimes holding on to a democracy means casting down a jaded perception and
aspiring fordemanding more."Prosecuting them both is the only correct answer .."
Biden isn't likely to be prosecuted which as a practical matter makes it harder to prosecute Trump as Jasper said.
I don’t except “optics” as a valid reason to abandon the rule of law.
Where did I write it's valid? Indeed, I expressly wrote I wished this were not the way it is.
The difference between you and me is I prefer to see the world as it is. You prefer to see the world as you wish it were.
Don't reach over your skis. I really have just two concerns: (1) there seems to be a general lack of protocols or carelessness to stick to existing protocols, and (2) I'd want to know if those documents were over-classified or not, and perhaps subsequently declassified.
Now that there's a special prosecutor involved, the Biden investigation could drag on for a very long time, with numerous "revelations" that could have a cumulative effect. There may be nothing much there, but there was no real wrongdoing with Benghazi or Hillary Clinton's emails, and they still caused her a lot of political damage. Most people can't escape the feeling that "where there's smoke, there's fire," even though, as President Kennedy observed, it could be just a smoke machine.
The fact that Attorney General Garland saw fit to appoint what appears to be an ambitious right wing prosecutor isn't grounds for optimism. He could decide to investigate and find nothing there, but if he expects to make the Supreme Court some day digging up as much dirt as possible for as long as possible is the way to do it.
Hard not to think what a convenient discovery this all is, for certain parties.
We've also been reading that Biden won't have conversations with Secret Service people in the room because he simply does not trust them.
Am I the only one thinking both Obama and W. Bush (and hell, Carter and others) might also have improperly taken some classified documents? At minimum it would certainly appear the White House document oversight process is a shitshow.
That being said, I'll note the difference between how it appears Biden and his people have handled things (full cooperation and transparency) and how Trump has (full obstruction). My guess is any honest comparison of the two situations suggests Biden has not committed any criminal acts and Trump has committed criminal acts. In a high-functioning polity that would mean Trump would still be facing indictment. I trust no reasonable observer mistakes the United States for a high-functioning polity. Trump, in other words, has dodged yet another bullet.
I don't want this to be true. But, you are sadly correct. Trump avoids the gas chamber once again.
If the DOJ is such a tender flower it can only bring charges when convenient, then DOJ needs to have the balls to indict both Trump and Biden and let a jury decide if the evidence brought in each case warrants conviction. Otherwise the rule of law, and compliance to laws and the perception of legitimacy of the Dept. Of Justice, slips even further into the gutter.
If we are to have one standard for all, then, based on what we currently know, Biden would not be charged, as most low-level workers who unintentionally mishandle sensitive documents are not. Trump would be charged, as are most persons who knowingly and willfully mishandle classified material. See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/22/trump-classified-prosecutions-mar-a-lago/
No doubt. But the DOJ makes choices when bringing a charge based on laws broken and likelihood of a conviction based on the available evidence obtained.
If everyone is so concerned about the optics of fairness in these two cases, the DOJ could simply choose to bring charges in both and let a court and a subsequent jury decide what if any law was broken.
While that may be an inefficient way of handling these cases, it’s 1) better than sweeping egregious lawbreaking under the rug just for sake of “optics” and 2) avoids the appearance of favoritism at least in the general public’s eye.
you leave out an extraordinarily important word in your analysis: intent. what you're doing is equating someone who makes an error on a bank loan application with someone who does a full george santos and saying both should be prosecuted for fraud, leaving it up to a jury to settle the issue. that's not how the law works.
This says it was six pages in the garage, then five more pages in the room next to the garage,
https://twitter.com/charlie_savage/status/1614361296543137795
The drip-drip is absolutely a tactic employed by the DOJ leaker, whoever that may be. That's to keep it in the news because our media only reports on what's new. Context is for suckers.
The drip-drip is the part I don't understand. Why didn't Biden's team tear apart the house/garage back in Nov to find everything then? Why not get it over with quickly?
The uproar is absurd. Biden had the necessary security clearance at all times to have access to these documents. The only potential problem was that they weren't stored in an approved location. Big deal, given nobody knew they were there. Are we supposed to believe Chinese spies sneaked into Joe's garage and searched all the boxes, just on the off chance they'd find some big secrets?
But this is the sort of pathetic media performance we can look forward to as members of the Washington Press Rabble fall over themselves proving to the new House majority that they are not the enemy liberals Trump says they are:
'Democratic allies grow frustrated with White House response to Biden's classified documents
Strategists, lawmakers and even some administration officials say the Biden White House needs to do a better job in explaining what transpired.'
The "strategists" in question are relics of the Clinton White House, who probably still have it in for Biden for running with Obama in 2008. And of course the "lawmakers and administration officials" are anonymous, for the usual gibberish reasons. NBC ignores the most plausible reason for the White House's silence, namely that Biden has no more idea than anyone else how the documents came to be in his possession.
I expect the special counsel will tell us in the fullness of time that one or more Biden aides were careless in packing up his records when he left office and should be subject to administrative sanctions if they're still working for the government. There'll be earnest recommendations to improve systems for safeguarding all this top secret classified information, regardless of the fact public servants would classify the White House lunch orders if they got the chance. Republicans will scream that it was the biggest whitewash cover-up since Hillary's server was sent to Ukraine, and 95% of Americans will ignore the whole affair.
I would definitely accept seeing Biden impeached, convicted by the senate and then prosecuted and imprisoned for this if it also meant Trump was similarly jailed. Or, you know… eliminated! Sorry Joe! You don’t deserve this but… collateral damage.
This wouldn’t even be public if not for trumps criminal theft of classified info. He sold it to Putin. He’s a pig. Oh well. Hang Joe out to dry so we can hang trump!
You really have to read the whole article to grasp how much the political media loves this story.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/13/politics/white-house-missteps-biden-documents/index.html
No one cares! And yet…
“Not only did this make it look like Biden had something to hide, it set up the kind of drip, drip of disclosures guaranteed to supercharge a Washington scandal.”
Hang Joe so we can hang trump. It’s a fair trade.
Classified documents should have embedded chips that advertise their locations when interrogated.
Georgia grand jury has wrapped up its work. This strongly suggests criminal charges coming shortly for Trump:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/14/trump-georgia-grand-jury-political-fate
The “drip-drip” factor and the ever present “both sides” media coverage may well be important factors in this situation; but,
I believe there may very well be another risky aspect to this situation: media hatred of Biden.
It may seem like a distant memory, but, as best I recall, the first six months of Biden’s presidency received fairly positive press coverage.
Why did that change? Afghanistan.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who recalls a media meltdown of stunning, perhaps even historic extent when Biden withdrew our armed forces from an un-winnable war in Afghanistan.
The hatred that media outlets unleashed on Biden at that time? I found it stunning.
And I fear they could see this confidential doc issue as an excuse to continue their campaign against a President they may never forgive for withdrawing American troops from that war.
I’m not at all certain that even Trump ever received such a violent and sustained media bashing, not even after leading an insurrection against his own country, as Biden received for doing the right thing in Afghanistan;
And I cannot believe that his detractors in the media have given up on their campaign to destroy him.
Yes, I bet they can't wait for the House hearings into the "catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan". There'll be one weepie "scandal" after another about all the "Afghan allies" Biden "left behind".
You recall incorrectly; except for a very brief window at the beginning of Biden's presidency (Which was not nearly as long as the average 'Presidential honeymoon'), the default position for most of the MSM has been one of unremitting hostility. President Biden, you see, made it clear early on that he didn't particularly care about 'what the media thought'; certainly he didn't cultivate them the way they think he should have done. And that Jen Psaki! She insisteted on disrespecting media organizations by not only by failing to take them seriously as a force to be reckoned with (as what they now think is their God-given due) but also by making them look ridiculous and exposing them for the tawdry yipping pack of muckrakers that they in fact are in front of a national audience.
I live in West Michigan where we only get clear skies about 5% of the time from mid November to March. Thanks for the pics.
Should have posted this in the next article about astronomy. Oops.
White House has clearly decided Trump not to be focus of remaining two years of his first term. By throwing the focus back on himself, Biden, once again says something true about how it works in the real world. Papers pile up, fail to get returned on time, or thrown out. Biden team once again way ahead disposing of silly stuff. Man's still got a chance to grab the gold ring. Doesn't want any of this crap in the way. Sure he'd like to focus on health-related issues again as quickly as possible. Everyone's always sick or unexpectedly sick or dying. Hopefully he'll stay focused on those topics.
"That was sure wrong! It's been a whole week of drip-drip-drip so far, and who knows what will happen next. There's still probably nothing here, but there's not much question that it will be a media show for quite a while.
That says more about the media than anything else.
Didn't Biden get daily briefings during Trump's term? There's a good chance these documents were just left behind by a sloppy Trump briefer. You see, it's actually Trump's fault that these documents were left there.