2023-10-10 02:32:14
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, in the Oval Office, the place of exercise of the presidency at the White House. October 5, 2023. EVAN VUCCI / AP
It was planned and expected, Joe Biden was questioned as part of the investigation into a series of confidential official documents found in a former office as well as in his family home, the White House announced on Monday October 9.
The interrogation, described as ” voluntary “took place on Sunday and Monday according to the American executive, which announced that “the president and the White House are cooperating” with the investigation, led by a special prosecutor. This is Robert Hur, former Maryland prosecutor and ex-executive of the department, also in the private sector.
“As we have said from the beginning, the President and the White House are cooperating with the investigation, and, where appropriate, we have publicly provided relevant information.”declared Ian Sams, spokesperson for the White House, emphasizing the administration’s desire to be ” transparent “ while protecting the integrity of the investigation.
At the end of 2022, a series of confidential documents, the exact number and content of which remain unknown, were found either in an office occupied by Joe Biden in a Washington think tank, or in his house in Wilmington, Delaware, on the east coast of the United States.
These documents date back to the Democrat’s vice-presidency (2009-2017) and his three decades in the Senate, during which he was heavily involved in foreign policy.
Embarrassment
Under government rules, access to classified documents is limited to accredited individuals and items must be kept in secure cabinets. According to the Presidential Records Act, official documents, classified or not, must also be deposited in the National Archives after the departure of an administration.
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The administration of the Democratic president had confirmed that a “small number of documents classified confidential” – around ten – had been found in a “locked cupboard” at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank where Joe Biden once had an office. “I was surprised to learn that government-related documents had been taken to this office. But I don’t know what’s in the documents.”the president then declared to the press.
These discoveries had plunged the White House into embarrassment because they evoke a case of official archives taken in large numbers to Florida by former Republican President Donald Trump.
Read also: Is the affair of classified documents discovered at Joe Biden’s home comparable to that of Donald Trump?
Several members of the Republican Party were quick to draw a parallel with the facts alleged against Donald Trump, who held full boxes of them at his residence in Florida, and were indignant at the differences in treatment on the part of the forces of the order, which they accuse of using double standards.
In both cases, the possession of these documents is therefore illegal, regardless of their number, their content and the conditions in which they were stored. But retaining and moving classified documents is generally only considered prosecutable if it is intentional, particularly if there was an intention to conceal it.
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