(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Calls for accountability and answers explaining President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents and storing them at the China-linked Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement think tank escalated Wednesday, after another batch of classified documents was reportedly discovered at a different location.
The second discovery also included classified documents from Biden’s stint as vice president during the Obama administration.
The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability had already informed the White House that it was investigating the Biden batch transgressions and demanding answers from the National Archives about the same.
The stark differences in the way NARA and the Justice Department responded to Biden’s handling of classified documents compared to the militarized FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, have come under growing criticism. Critics of the two-tiered system of justice have also noted that unlike former President Trump, former Veep Biden had no power or authority to declassify any material.
Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, called on Wednesday for Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate Biden’s repeated actions of taking, transferring and stashing classified documents.
Trump is currently being investigated by a highly partisan special counsel, who was appointed two days after Biden reportedly learned in November that his own stash of classified documents had been unearthed. In the weeds of the crucial midterm elections, Biden’s attorneys kept the discovery under public wraps, funneling the documents to the National Archives where they remained out of sight until surfacing this week.
“Biden’s documents are HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL, many pertain to UKRAINE, where Hunter was ‘raking in the dough,’ and FUNDED BY CHINA, which gave $55 Million to Biden, through Penn, and probably had easy access,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The Ukraine connection could link to Biden’s actions as vice president when he hard-balled the Ukrainian government for $1 billion to fire a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma, a company tied to Biden’s son, Hunter, who was paid handsomely to serve on its board.
Biden has feigned ignorance about the classified documents, while insisting that his DOJ is reviewing the matter. That didn’t wash with Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who also called for a special prosecutor to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents.
“It can’t be that we have two tiers of justice in this country. It can’t be that there’s one rule for Republicans and a different rule for Democrats,” Hawley, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News.
“Merrick Garland said, ‘Oh, we have to have a special prosecutor for Trump.’ Well, that means we’ve got to have one for Biden,” said Hawley, adding that “arguably it’s worse for Biden” because “he couldn’t declassify.”
“Whatever else we know is true, we know he didn’t have the power on his own as V.P. to declassify these documents,” Hawley said. “The Democrats say they’re all for equity. What’s equitable here is that there’d be a special counsel.”
Instead of calling for equity, Democrats were scrambling for cover and trying their best to deflect any attention from the growing Biden-batch scandal.
“We tried to talk with House Democrats about whether or not they think the president being caught with classified documents in his old office is a big deal or not, but not everyone was feeling chatty,” reported Fox News.
When asked about the controversy, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D- Calif., simply stuffed something in her craw and chewed her way through no comment. The hypocrisy of Pelosi’s silence spoke volumes when compared to her constant bleating about Trump’s handling of documents. Other top Democrats tried to downplay the controversy, or hid behind referrals to the DOJ.
White House mouthpiece Karine Jean-Pierre tried a similar strategy during a Wednesday press briefing, after news of a second batch of Biden’s classified documents being discovered.
When asked if there were any assurances that the White House “could provide at this point that there are no other classified documents out there in any other office and/or home,” Jean-Pierre punted.
“This is an ongoing process so I’m going to let the process continue,” she said.
When pressed, Jean-Pierre offered more floundering.
“On these documents, how could anyone be that irresponsible? Isn’t that what this president says about mishandling classified documents?” Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked.
Doocy confronts Jean-Pierre over Biden’s past comments saying “how can anyone be so irresponsible” in regards to classified documents being found with Trump. pic.twitter.com/E6xU2cW4AO
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) January 11, 2023
“The president spoke to this personally … he believes that classified documents and information should be taken seriously,” Jean-Pierre claimed. “He takes them seriously, and he was surprised to learn about any records that had been taken.”
Biden called Trump “irresponsible” so what does the latest scandal make Joe? pic.twitter.com/7D7DBVPXFj
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) January 11, 2023
“They’re going to have to eat their words,” Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told Fox News. “But the hypocrisy, think about this, they’ve gotten away with so much for so long.
“This was discovered before the last election, just like the laptop. They think they can lie to the American public.
“They think they’re above the law. Why weren’t they raided, why didn’t they have the FBI coming in?” McCarthy asked. “Why didn’t he in 60 Minutes say, ‘Well, I understand that because I bet I have the same problem?’”
