After secret documents were found in a former private office of US President Joe Biden, more papers were found in his garage in Delaware. An independent special investigator has now been called in.
An independent special investigator is to investigate the discovery of various secret documents in the private rooms of US President Joe Biden from his time as Vice President. This is in the public interest, said US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday at a short-term appearance in Washington. Garland installs the Special Counsel as Attorney General. The investigation is said to be led by lawyer Robert Hur.
In the past few days it has become known that classified information from Biden’s time as deputy has been discovered in various places. These include private offices in the US capital Washington as well as the Bidens house in Wilmington in the US state of Delaware. The first tranche had already been discovered in early November – shortly before the important midterm elections. Only when the media reported on the find did the White House confirm the incident. In response to the first find, employees of the US President are said to have searched for further documents and finally found what they were looking for in Biden’s house, said Biden’s special adviser Richard Sauber.
The situation is politically extremely sensitive for Biden, because his Republican predecessor Donald Trump caused a scandal in the summer with a similar case. When he left the White House, Trump took government documents with him to his private estate Mar-a-Lago in Florida on a grand scale, including a number of top-secret documents. The Federal Police FBI had searched the property in August and confiscated various classified documents. A special investigator is investigating the case that Trump could have committed a criminal offense. The Democrat Biden had rated the behavior of his predecessor as “irresponsible”.
In Trump’s case, Attorney General Garland has already appointed a special counsel. On the one hand, Jack Smith deals with the investigations in connection with secret government documents. He is also overseeing investigations into the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. In certain exceptional cases, it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel to independently conduct the investigation, Garland said at the time. A major reason for the appointment was that Trump had recently announced a renewed candidacy for the presidency. Biden has also repeatedly stated his general intention to compete again.
Trump had sharply criticized Garland’s actions and repeatedly addressed the special counsel Smith verbally. Following the revelations about Biden’s handling of secret documents, prominent Republicans have also called for the appointment of a special counsel in this case. Republicans had also accused Biden and his administration of using double standards and exaggerating when dealing with Trump.
Even if the Trump and Biden cases look very similar at first glance, there are important differences. According to Biden’s team, they immediately reported the discoveries to the Department of Justice and passed on the documents. Unlike Biden, Trump’s case was preceded by a dispute with the National Archives. It tried unsuccessfully for months to get papers from Trump’s tenure. Trump’s team finally handed over documents to the National Archives – but by no means all of them, as it turned out during a search by the FBI federal police in August.
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When I read the police report today, I was honestly shocked: It said there were families with small children among the occupiers of the lignite town of Lützerath. Small children? In the battle zone against global warming! Are you crazy?
