FBI search worsens policy implications for Joe Biden

The FBI’s search of the US President Joe Biden’s home, and the discovery of more classified material made it even more serious secret documents controversy and worsened the political fallout of the case.

Biden’s lawyers argued that Friday’s search (20) stressed cooperation with the investigation and the special council indicated for the case – a totally different behavior from that of former president Donald Trump in your scandal confidential or “classified” documents.

However, the fact that FBI agents searched the residence deprived of a president who is in office continues to be extraordinary, even with the White House wanting to put curtains hot.

The operation raised new questions about why Biden still have secret information from his time as deputychairman; like the material, normally treated with extreme cared for by federal servants, ended up in his private residence; and whether he was protected from prying eyes in the years when was there.

The new findings have led to some criticism directed at the president, even among Democrats. The White House’s handling of the controversy, which fueled the classic drip cycle of a Washington scandal, those that emerge slowly, drop by drop, distracted attention from a period of political success for the president. In addition, he offered overtures to the new Republican majority in the House.

“When information [sigilosa] is found, it diminishes the stature of anyone who is in possession of it, because that’s not what should happen,” said Deputy Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin on the “State of the Union” program. CNN , on Sunday (22). “Whether it was the fault of an employee or a lawyer, it makes no difference. The elected politician has the ultimate responsibility,” added the Illinois senator.

Like other Democrats, Durbin also tried to draw comparisons between Biden’s cooperation with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Trump’s months of apparent willful confusion and even possible criminal obstruction in the former president’s case, which involves an amount largest number of classified documents. The main names of the Republican Party, however, sought to deepen Biden’s discomfort, taking advantage of the opportunity given to his political enemies.

“As a former federal attorney, I think what’s important is that they are not just using lawyers, although the search has been consensual”, opined the president of the House Exteriors, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, also in the program “State of the Union”. The Texas Republican continued, “The fact is that the FBI conducted this search, not the lawyers, which changes the course of the investigation”.

While there are legal distinctions between the Biden and Trump cases, many voters may simply perceive that both are just a matter of retaining confidential documents at home. AND, although years from now, when the legacy of the current president is assessed, your current embarrassment may be a mere hiccup, it today represents plenty of ammunition for the Trump campaign in 2024, as it drops one of the most potent lines of attack against him.

White House tries to dampen the controversy

The visit of the FBI agents to the Biden home in Wilmington, Delaware, which lasted 13 hours, was publicly unveiled by Biden’s personal attorney on Saturday night. He said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) took out “six items consisting of documents with classification marks [sigilo] and materials adjacent, some of which were of the function

of the president in Senate and some of his tenure as Vice President.” THE department also took some handwritten notes from the years of Biden as vice president, attorney Bob Bauer said at the communicated.

The operation took place after approximately 20 documents be found by the president’s lawyers at Biden’s home and in an office he used in Washington after leaving vice presidency.

Richard Sauber, a senior White House counsel, wrote in a statement on Saturday that Biden was “committed to dealing with deal with it responsibly as he takes it seriously.” Second the attorney, he and his team worked “quickly to ensure that the DOJ and the Special Council have what they need to carry out a complete overhaul”.

It’s a clear attempt to distinguish the president’s situation from that of Trump, who resisted attempts to hand over classified information at his Mar-a-Lago residence, apparently misled investigators about what he had, accused the FBI of planting incriminating information and claimed that he had already “disqualified” the papers, even though there was no sign suggesting such a procedure.

Among the possible charges Trump faces in his own investigation of the special commissioner appointed to the case is obstruction of justice. Biden’s conduct does not seem to suggest that he will face a similar situation, even without using old Justice Department prerogatives that would guarantee protection for incumbent presidents.

In theory, it is possible to see a possible justification for prosecuting Trump, for example, for obstruction, if the evidence is in that sense, and Biden escape unscathed.

But although such legal distinctions may exist, the political consequences of such a course would be incendiary. The issue of judging Trump as a former and current president candidate for the 2024 White House – so much about the saga of the documents as because of his role before the insurrection of the US Capitol in 2021 – was already radioactive. any perception of that he is being treated differently than Biden, with the two rivals potentially being opponents in 2024, would create a political hell that Trump is sure to exploit.

The Drip Scandal

The discovery of new documents on Saturday represented the last instance where later events – including the discovery of more confidential material – came after attempts by the White House and of the president to minimize the importance of the case.

After Biden suggested that classified documents found in her garage were safe because she was locked to protect his beloved Corvette, he told reporters who asked him about the situation, on Thursday (18), that “I don’t there is ‘there’”.

However, on the dayNext, the FBI investigators who made search of his home in Wilmington accompanied by the legal team of the president found more material classified in a way which further blurred the distinctions between his case and that of Trump.

While Democrats defended the president, there were clear indications of concern and even frustration among its allies in the Congress that the White House has not yet closed the controversy.

Tim Kaine, the Democratic senator from Virginia, for example, said on Sunday that important questions remained open even as the president cooperated with the investigation.

“That’s why there needs to be this independent investigation. How many documents are we talking about? Tens, a handful or hundreds? How serious are they? Why were they taken? Did anyone have access to them?” Kaine asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Joe Manchin, the West Virginia senator who sometimes takes positions that clash with Democratic Party leaders, in part because of Trump’s popularity in his home state, was tough on Biden and also demanded answers.

“It is unbelievable how this can happen. Is totally irresponsible,” he said in CNN . “What must be done is exactly what (Attorney General) Merrick Garland did. appoint a board Special. Let’s wait and see. Some people are taking party, Saying that what Trump did was more serious or that Biden made it worse. Maybe it’s true. I don’t know. Maybe it’s not true. Let’s find out”.

Friday’s FBI raid, and the team’s apparent cooperation of Biden, seem to take away one of the main points of criticism from Republicans: that Trump was treated unfairly because his property was “invaded” and Biden’s was not.

THE Republican party was making that argument, even though the search of Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago last year has been authorized by a court order that required the FBI to convince a judge that there was probable cause of possible crime.

But few Republicans mentioned such distinctions. the senator of Florida Rick Scott tweeted: “Think about it: Joe Biden kept documents undisclosed in your home for years without explanation or accountability about why”.

Among several other angry tweets from Republicans, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley added, “It seems like a pattern of serial contempt for the law. The American people have a right to know what that was in all these documents that Biden was hoarding illegally. And who else had access to them.”

The Republicans’ joy reflected the new opening given to them and an impressive slice of luck for Trump after a start lackluster for his 2024 presidential campaign.