Joe Biden has been mired in scandal after batches of unsecured classified documents dating back to his days as Barack Obama’s vice president were found at a Washington-based think tank bearing his name, and then at his Delaware home. The president maintains innocence, insisting that he has “no regrets” and that the scandal is a nothingburger.
The FBI’s sweep of President Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware home for additional documents with classified markings last week saw the seizure of notebooks containing handwritten notes by the politician from during his tenure as vice president, an anonymous source said to be familiar with an ongoing investigation has told US media.
The notebooks did not bear any classified markings, but were taken by authorities because they ‘may refer to classified information’ and pertain to official business which should have been handed over to the National Archives in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.
The former vice president reportedly kept a “large” collection of such notebooks, in which he jotted down both info related to his duties as vice president, and personal, family-related information and musings about his experiences as veep.
Biden officials, the FBI and the Department of Justice declined to elaborate on the notebooks or their contents.
The Biden document scandal broke out in November 2022, when ‘about 20’ classified documents were found by his lawyers at the Penn Biden Center and his Wilmington, Delaware home. Additional documents were discovered in December, and three more batches on January 9, 12 and 21. Some of the documents allegedly pertain to Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom.
Biden maintains that he has no regrets about the discovered documents, and that he has no recollection of ever stashing them.
The Justice Department opened a special counsel investigation into the “possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records” earlier this month. The Republican-controlled House Judiciary committee has set up its own, separate probe.
The uproar over the documents has put a crimp on Democrats’ investigation into former President Donald Trump over his possession of classified documents – including details on the nuclear weapons capabilities of a foreign government, at his Florida estate. The FBI raided the estate in August 2022. Trump too maintains his innocence, citing his alleged power as president to declassify any document he wants.
Earlier this week, former Vice President Mike Pence’s lawyer came forward to announce that Pence too had classified documents in his Indiana home.
The National Archives has subsequently asked all former US presidents and vice presidents to double check to see if they had any classified documents tucked away in their possession.
The scandal over the classified documents comes at a peculiar time for Biden, who is facing growing pressure from within his administration and party not to run again in 2024 amid sagging approval ratings and concerns over his mental acuity. Earlier this month, political pundit Tucker Carlson argued, somewhat convincingly, that the Biden document scandal may be a ploy by Democrats to force him to step aside.

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