The White House and the Department of Justice (DOJ) worked together to conceal the discovery of President Joe Biden’s classified documents for months, according to The Washington Post (WaPo).
Days after the first trove of documents was discovered at the Penn Biden Center, a senior official in the DOJ wrote a letter to Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, asking for him to cooperate in the inquiry, WaPo reported.
The official also asked Bauer to get the documents but to not look inside, and requested for him to disclose where more documents could be located, according to the outlet. More documents were discovered at Biden’s Delaware residence Dec. 20, Jan. 11 and Jan. 12.
The White House had initially endeavored to find out how the documents had gotten to the Penn Biden Center and other locations, but on Nov. 10, the DOJ said it would be taking over the investigation, two anonymous sources told WaPo.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco refused to say Wednesday if law enforcement officials told Biden administration officials to stay quiet, according to the outlet.
US President Joe Biden gives a thumb’s up as he departs after inspecting flood damage from recent storms, at Moffett Federal Airfield in Santa Clara county in Mountain View, California on January 19, 2023. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Although the documents were originally discovered Nov. 2, the news was kept hidden for months and only surfaced after CBS published a report Jan. 9. The White House Counsel office refused to tell the Daily Caller when Biden first knew of the documents, and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that the press office knew nothing of the documents until the CBS report. (RELATED: White House Counsel Refuses To Say When Biden First Knew About Classified Documents)
Biden downplayed the significance of the classified documents on Thursday and said he has “no regrets.”
“I have no regrets in following what the lawyers have told me what they want me to do, it’s exactly what we’re doing. There’s no there there,” Biden said.
“Look, as we found a handful of documents that were filed in the wrong place, we immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice department. We are fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly. I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there,” he added.