According to Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, President Joe Biden’s lawyers are “likely witnesses in a criminal investigation” as the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents continues.
Two caches of classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president were discovered in the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., as well as in the president’s Wilmington, Delaware, home in the garage by his Corvette, plunging the White House into an ongoing scandal after five more classified documents were discovered there over the weekend.
Turley SAID Digital that we “don’t know what the evidence will show” and that the “most serious discovery would be evidence that Biden worked off or removed their documents from their classification.”
“Not only would that destroy the ‘accident’ defense, but it would also make his public comments potentially deceptive of both the public and investigators,” Turley said. “While gross mismanagement does not necessitate evil intent, unintentional violations are frequently dealt with outside of the criminal justice system. Where material was intentionally removed, the most serious violations have been prosecuted.”
“Intent can be established not only at the time of removal but also during document storage,” he added. “It would qualify as an intentional act to unlawfully possess the material if these documents were used or knowingly possessed over the six years.”
Turley went on to say that “the use of private counsel without clearances following the first discovery on November 2 could be viewed as reckless and gross mishandling.”
“Moreover, those lawyers are now likely to be called as witnesses in a criminal investigation,” Turley added.
According to Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, the “White House needs to cooperate fully with this investigation, which includes helping the special counsel figure out how the documents got to the Penn Biden Center and his home and who knew they were there (if anyone), as well as cooperating with a DOJ or intelligence assessment of who may have access to the documents.”
“This is especially concerning with regard to the Penn-Biden Center, where the Penn president raised tens of millions of dollars from Chinese donors, and many people (including Penn donors) had access to the center and must have had a chance to look in Biden’s office and notice the locked closet, raising curiosity about what was inside and perhaps a desire to find out,” Painter said.
Painter was the White House ethics chief under former President George W. Bush before switching parties and running unsuccessfully for Senate as a Democrat in 2018.
Republicans on Capitol Hill demanded the visitor logs over the weekend after it was revealed that Biden’s lawyers had discovered five more classified documents in the home’s garage. While comprehensive visitor logs are common practice at the White House, Biden’s lawyers claim no such records exist for his home in Wilmington.
“His personal residence is personal, as it has been for every President in decades of modern history,” the White House Counsel’s Office said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Monday. “However, upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitor logs, including publishing them on a regular basis, which had been discontinued by the previous administration.”
According to the Secret Service, while a detail is assigned to the home, visitors are not recorded.
