The Biden classified document story is coming out in drips. Even today, yet another document has been found. I predict it won’t be the last. The news stories are quite frankly, also piecemeal. No single story that I’ve seen brings all the relevant factors under one roof. Each journalist magnifies a few points, states a disposition about the factors they brought forth, and ignores other equally or more important issues they left out of the story. As this is a quick moving story, the kind I usually avoid, this seems like a good time to make an exception. See what your columnist neglected to add.
Donald Trump
- Was President and took possession of documents during his term as President.
- Held documents were marked Secret and Top Secret.
- Was in ongoing contact with the National Archives about the disposition of the documents.
- Had them locked in a secure room at Mara Lago.
- Had constitutionally conferred declassification authority as President at the point at which he took possession of the documents.
- As President, had congressionally mandated authorization to keep documentation relevant to his Presidential tenure.
- Was raided by the FBI upon the orders of Biden’s Department of Justice.
Joe Biden
- Was Vice President and took possession of documents during his term as Vice President.
- Held documents were marked Secret and Top Secret.
- Held documents unknown to the National Archives until they were voluntarily contacted upon discovery.
- Unsecured documents were in two places [that we are presently aware of], the Penn Biden Center and Biden’s unsecured garage and [now], multiple documents in his home in Wilmington De.
- As Vice President, had no constitutionally conferred declassification authority.
- As Vice President, there was no authorization to keep documentation relevant to his Vice-Presidential tenure.
- Transported, held, and stored documents illegally.
- The Penn Biden Center wasn’t formed until 2018, bringing into question the provenance of the records between 2016 and 2018, raising the probability that the documents were handled by uncleared individuals.
- All individuals and organizations holding classified documents in the interim time will require further examination. Did Biden hold and transport them? Then he is lying about his ignorance of the documents. Did others with clearance status handle them? There is then evidence of criminal mishandling. Did others without clearance status handle them? That is an immediate national security violation.
- The Vice President’s personal residence was shared with Hunter Biden during the period in which documents were stored at the house. He, potentially, had access to all the unsecured documents found there either known or unknown to Joe Biden.
- The overlapping subject matter of the documents and the documented ‘business relationships’ of Hunter Biden makes all Hunter Biden investigations relevant to the Joe Biden classified document investigation.
There is much comparative speculation on the nature of Trump’s document case vs. Biden’s. Most of those discussions ignore the straightforward statutory legality assigned to each office holder. Simply stated, before any other facts of the case are considered, Trump had statutory authority to take possession of the documents he held, and Biden did not. The only question, secondary in my opinion, is whether Trump followed proper procedures for decommissioning those documents. Decommissioning was not even an option for Biden as he was not authorized to take those documents or hold them for any reason. He would be entitled to that in his present office but that is not relevant to documents found. Biden committed a crime the moment those documents left a classified environment.
This is simply a run-down of known facts reported so far. The legal or illegal status where stated and associated with each factor is statutory; ‘chapter and verse’ is publicly available. If Biden’s handling of documents is simply the arrogant carelessness of an old man leaving office in January 2017, there will be few repercussions other than the nullification of the ‘witch hunt’ perpetrated against Trump. In the eyes of the Progressive left, that is bad enough. But to the extent that connections are found to the corrupt dealings surrounding Hunter Biden and the ‘Biden Family Crime Syndicate’, this case will prove to be of far greater consequence. Such connections would be, for example, written documentation correlating the contents of the classified documents to the Hunter Biden laptop. The two cases are interrelated and relevant to each other.
In the news cycle, this will be quickly forgotten in the context of newly revealed Biden corruption, but it will not be lost on investigators and ultimately, Congress and the Judiciary. To all the progressives holding out hope that this will just blow over, don’t get too comfortable.