In recent weeks, the discovery of classified documents in the possession of President Joe Biden, Which could become a headache for the Democrats. This corresponds to two phases of his political career: Senator for Delaware and Vice President during the administration of Barack Obama (2009–2017). Secret documents were found in different locations six years after Biden’s vice presidential term ended. There are four findings in total so far, which may point to misappropriation, misuse, and disclosure of United States government secret information.
Another similar fact became known after the discovery of classified documents at the residence of former Vice President Mike Pence in Indiana.
In August, the FBI raided the home of former President Donald trump, in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, where they found classified documents, a case that had been under investigation for several months.
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Europe Press Archive
recurring problem
Apparently, mishandling of the documents has become a recurring problem and would be a violation of the Presidential Records Act (PRA), which establishes that the President and Vice Presidents must record all of their emails, letters and documents while in office. Other working papers are required to be transferred to the National Archives. and Records Administration (NARA).
Furthermore, it would be a violation of the Espionage Act, which prohibits “saving” classified documents in unauthorized and unsecured sites.
“I think this points to a central problem that it is very easy for government officials, because of their openness, to have the power and authority to remove these documents from places where they should be consulted,” Professor Gamarra he said; Therefore, “either the rule that exists is not clear enough or it is in violation of the existing rules that every public official must respect, and that is why[is]the investigation,” conducted by the Department of Justice, Who has appointed special prosecutors in the cases of Trump and Biden.
For the academic, there is a difference he describes as “huge” in the severity of the three cases (Biden, Pence, Trump). Their argument is based on the fact that former President Trump did not return the documents when requested by the Justice Department, which was acting on behalf of the National Archives.
“Politics is always present in these types of allegations, we are seeing that the problem is deeper and not just one person, although there are differences of degree between what former President Trump did, and what we know so far (That’s) what President Biden did and what former Vice President Mike Pence did.
In Biden’s case, it’s an early-stage investigation, “It’s not known what other charges he will be facing other than taking documents in violation of the rules, but not that he has refused to return.” ” them. Same with former Vice President Pence, who has voluntarily handed over those documents,” Gamarra said.
“Treason to the Fatherland”
Republican jurist and political analyst Lorenzo Palomares believes that President Biden’s affair goes beyond a threat to the national security of the United States, and qualifies it as “treason”.
“I don’t see it as a threat, I see it as treason, there’s no reason to keep these documents in different places if you’re not going to hide them,” Palomares insisted.
And he added: “In my opinion, after so many years it’s not desertion, it’s concealment. They got it by the difference that Trump had been out of the White House for a year and a half, he was the president and could declassify him.” were, although today President Biden can declassify them because he’s the president, (but) it’s not convenient for him to declassify them because then everybody’s going to see the effect selling (trafficking) that happens with those documents Was,” he said.
The documents were first discovered by the president’s lawyers in November before the midterm elections, but the government remained silent.
That search was in the office that Biden held between 2017 and 2020 after leaving the vice presidency. There, in the center bearing the name of today’s president, they remained without protection. This is Penn Biden in Washington for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a private organization affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, where Biden served as a professor from 2017 to 2020. The facility, located a short distance from the White House, received millions of Chinese dollars. The classified documents remained there when Biden became president in January 2021, a reason Republicans consider sufficient to investigate.
The other two places where Biden’s personal lawyers found more classified documents are the president’s private library at his residence in Wilmington, Delaware; and in the garage in his Corvette, a car that his son Hunter also drives with the girls, according to photos published in American media and social networks.
“Here are documents that date back to a time when Mr. Biden was a Senator who had no rights or privileges (despite having secret documents in his possession), however today he is President and, like former President Trump, they are declassified has a constitutional right to do so. did.. The problem is that these documents have been stored for between 6 and 15 years, and it needs to be seen whether those documents have to do with China, Ukraine and all the lobbying that the president’s son Hunter Biden did in favor . His father as the ‘big man’ he called him and what businesses he was selling to the Vice President and through the Senate, questioned the lawyer Palomares.
Republicans accused Hunter Biden of taking advantage of his father’s high positions to promote an alleged scheme of “influence peddling and questionable deals” that clearly would not be alien to the president.
indictment
On the other hand, the Republican leader in the Senate, John Thune, advised against a “tit for tit” position at the Capitol following the findings of classified documents in Biden’s possession.
Democrats conducted two “political trials” against Trump, an unprecedented event in history and something the former Republican president considers a “witch hunt” against him.
Thun assured that “there must be a very good reason, obviously, constitutional reasons and grounds for that. So we’ll see where it goes.”
Thus, the statements of the Republican leader in the Senate can now calm the spirits of the members of his party, especially in the House of Representatives, which tries to impeach Biden.
Kamala on the presidency?
Lawmaker Lorenzo Palomares believes there will be no “impeachment”, and maintains that the best insurance policy Democrats have during the political trial against Biden in Congress is [la vicepresidenta] Kamala Harris. “Nobody wants her, she’s not going to see an ‘impeachment’ because nobody wants Kamala Harris as president,” he said.
“So, the most we can do here is for Congress to do its own investigation and inform us about the contents of those documents, they don’t have to say what the contents are, but they can say what the documents are about.” That’s not a violation of the law,” he said.
The White House declined to release information about Biden’s classified documents. Palomares assured that they would not.
Key word: “deliberately”
Professor Gamra said that there is a provision of punishment in case of discovery of secret material. “I know enough about the document classification process to tell you that the penalties are commensurate with the seriousness of the matter.”
By law, there are three levels of document classification: “confidential”, the lowest; “Secret” and “Top Secret”.
The law establishes that any person who “knowingly” conceals or destroys official documents can be fined and imprisoned for up to three years. The law also considers a “disqualification” to be elected or to hold public office. However, the caveat is that it is only a “crime” if it is committed “intentionally”, something that the accusing party has to prove and according to experts is not that easy.
Biden and Pence have claimed they “didn’t know” they had the documents. In Biden’s case, experts do not rule out that they may find more documents, but it remains to be seen whether the investigation, conducted by the FBI at the president’s invitation, will be carried out in Biden’s second House. ,
For attorney Palomares, the case will have no consequences for President Biden, nor for his son Hunter, who has an open federal investigation for alleged tax evasion for million-dollar contracts overseas, and arms purchases. To lie for. The investigation seeks to determine whether money laundering, tax and foreign lobbying laws were violated.
He assured that Democrats try to reduce the search for classified documents in the Biden case compared to Trump, despite the fact that he “hid” them for many years.
“Here, what we have to wait for is that Congress and our constitutional legal system should get their hands on the matter and inform us what these documents are about, they can’t give us the material, but I I’m sure Congress will ask him, he’s going to give it to him and nothing is going to happen, our republican system of government is going to pardon the son the father in the last six months of his presidency and nothing will happen Going on, there will be no arrests. The attack against Trump has been undermined, with the FBI raiding his residence, accusing him of treason and what is more treasonous than selling the country’s influences to China Palomares said.
As the investigation progresses and Attorney General Merrick Garland attempts to sell an image of “impartiality” by appointing special prosecutors to investigate the cases, Trump, Biden and former Vice President Pence all look to the 2024 presidential election Fixed. Biden can announce it. in February. will be able? This is the million dollar question.
