President Joe Biden found himself in a sticky wicket after it emerged that he had stashed away classified documents from his vice-president days in his private think tank office in Washington. Biden refused to answer reporters' queries about the situation even as the US Attorney Merrick Garland ordered a probe into the incident.
Trump Skewers Biden
Former President Donald Trump has now caught on to the moment, asking Biden if he truly believed it was treasonous to keep official documents at a private office. Trump was referring to the Democrat witch-hunt launched against him after it was revealed that presidential documents were kept at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.
"When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House? These documents were definitely not declassified," Trump wrote on Truth Social. The former president was referring to the FBI raid at his residence in Florida.
Biden's Harsh Take
Biden was extremely critical of Trump, in line with the Democrat agenda, when the FBI found the documents at Mar-a-Lago. "How that could possibly happen? How one – anyone could be that irresponsible ... And I thought what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods? By that I mean names of people who helped or, et cetera. ... totally irresponsible," Biden had at that time.
Trump's son Donald Trump Jr wrote on Twitter: "We were told for months that this was treasonous... grounds for impeachment... & meriting the death penalty, yet I have a feeling nothing will happen!?"
FBI agents conducted an 'unannounced' raid at former US President Donald Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August. The raid was part of the Justice Department's criminal investigation against the former President.
Terming the raid as a sign of 'dark times' for the nation, Trump issued a statement calling it a politically motivated attack. "These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents," Trump said in a lengthy email statement issued by his Save America political committee.
McCarthy Says Democrats Overplayed Their Hand
Meanwhile, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy also brought the nation's attention to the attack on Trump over the Mar-a-Lago files. The newly installed Speaker said the Democrats "overplayed their hand" while pursuing Trump. "I think from ... the same point that the Dems overplayed their hand on the Mar-a-Lago ... just a proof of that .." said McCarthy.
The documents found in the private office include some top-secret files that hold the designation of 'sensitive compartmented information', according to media reports. This designation is given to documents that contain information garnered from intelligence sources.
The documents were found at the office of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which is a private, Biden-controlled think tank affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. The office was opened in Washington, D.C., in 2018, two years after Biden left office as Barack Obama's vice-president. During which time Biden was an honorary faculty at the University of Pennsylvania.
