As Joe Biden contemplated his next move in 2017 after decades in government, he considered a familiar path \u2014 creating a\u00a0Washington-based think tank\u00a0to focus on international affairs and diplomacy. It proved an easy sell and a lucrative one, too.
\nSoft landings in the capital are common for officials with a resume like Biden\u2019s, and the\u00a0Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement\u00a0was born, with a grand view of the Capitol.
\nThe former vice president brought with him trusted staff and boxes of files. Now,\u00a0a small batch of those files\u00a0is at the center of controversy because\u00a0some were classified documents\u00a0that Biden had no right to retain.
\nThe gloss of Ivy League academia and high-minded ambitions has been dulled by this month\u2019s disclosure that the sensitive documents were found last fall in a locked closet as Biden lawyers were packing up his former office at the center. That discovery is posing a test for Biden just as he is contemplating\u00a0a 2024 reelection campaign.<\/p>\n
Classified docs probe pushes Biden think tank into spotlight
\nBy COLLEEN LONGyesterday<\/p>\n
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\nFILE – The building that housed office space of President Joe Biden’s former institute, the Penn Biden Center, is seen at the corner of Constitution and Louisiana Avenue NW, in Washington, Jan. 10, 2023. The discovery of classified documents at an office Biden used during his brief time outside government has thrust his namesake think tank into an unwelcome spotlight. The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement was a landing spot for the president after he left the vice presidency in 2017. (AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 As Joe Biden contemplated his next move in 2017 after decades in government, he considered a familiar path \u2014 creating a\u00a0Washington-based think tank\u00a0to focus on international affairs and diplomacy. It proved an easy sell and a lucrative one, too.
\nSoft landings in the capital are common for officials with a resume like Biden\u2019s, and the\u00a0Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement\u00a0was born, with a grand view of the Capitol.
\nThe former vice president brought with him trusted staff and boxes of files. Now,\u00a0a small batch of those files\u00a0is at the center of controversy because\u00a0some were classified documents\u00a0that Biden had no right to retain.
\nThe gloss of Ivy League academia and high-minded ambitions has been dulled by this month\u2019s disclosure that the sensitive documents were found last fall in a locked closet as Biden lawyers were packing up his former office at the center. That discovery is posing a test for Biden just as he is contemplating\u00a0a 2024 reelection campaign.
\nIt turns out politics have been part of the equation all along.
\nIn an early meeting at the center in February 2018, Biden told longtime foreign policy aides \u2014 many of them from the Obama-Biden administration \u2014 that he was keeping his options open for a potential presidential campaign in 2020 and that he would welcome them joining his team if he decided to run.<\/p>\n