The US president Joe Biden has addressed the issue of classified documents from his time as vice president that were found at his private office at the Penn Biden Center for the first time on Tuesday.
He said that he was “surprised to learn” they were there and is cooperating fully with the Justice Department’s review.
Responding to questions at North American Leaders Summit in Mexico City, “Let me get rid of the easy one first,” he said. “People know I take classified documents and classified information seriously.”
He said the classified documents were found by his personal attorneys as they were clearing the office.
“They did what they should have done. They immediately called the [National Archives] … turned them over to the Archives, and I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office,” the president added.
“But I don’t know what’s in the documents. My lawyers have not suggested I ask what documents they were.”
The US justice department is reviewing the classified documents that were discovered on November 2, just before the midterm elections, according to Richard Sauber, special counsel to the White House.
The classified documents were found by the attorneys in a folder in a box with other unclassified papers. as they were preparing to vacate office space at the center, which the president used from mid-2017 until he began the 2020 campaign.
Sauber said the National Archives have taken possession of the documents.
“The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives,” Sauber had said in a statement.
“How that could possibly happen? “How anyone could be that irresponsible?” president Biden said in September during his appearance on CBS, when asked for his reaction to a photo showing the documents recovered at Mr Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.
Reacting to the discovery of classified documents in Biden’s office, the former president Mr Trump in a post on his social media site, Truth Social, asked, “When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?”
The Biden files were discovered shortly before the justice department announced it would appoint an independent lawyer to decide whether to criminally charge Mr Trump over the files found Mar-a-Lago.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
