“The political consequences will be significant”: how the Biden scandal develops due to secret documents

The US Department of Justice has closed Republicans in Congress access to information related to the scandal surrounding the head of the White House, Joe Biden, and secret documents that he kept improperly.

This was announced by a member of the US House of Representatives Marjorie Taylor Green on her Twitter.

“And just like that, everything that we (Republicans.

) ask will be “considered by the investigation” due to the special prosecutor appointed by Merrick Garland and will become unavailable for investigation by the Republicans.

Great," Greene wrote.

Earlier, she also noted that the presence of Biden "in the hands of secret documents" suggests that "he stole them."

We are talking about the period when the current head of the White House served as Vice President of the United States in the administration of Barack Obama.

“The vice presidents of the United States cannot declassify information ... This is the third time that Biden's people have accused him of stealing classified documents.

Usually Democrats bleach (text.

), tear to pieces and burn (documents.

), so why are they going against him now?

Green wrote on Twitter.

However, the chairman of the US House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, James Comer, believes that the appointment of a special counsel will not prevent the Republicans from conducting their own investigation.

He announced this on Twitter.

The committee will have to find out whether Biden followed the rules for the handling of classified documents during the time he served as vice president.

Earlier, Speaker of the Lower House of the US Congress Kevin McCarthy called on his fellow lawmakers to investigate the discovery of classified documents.

“Not once, but now in two different places we find classified information lying openly in plain sight,” he told reporters.

“I think Congress needs to look into this.”

According to US lawmaker Paul Gosar, who gave a comment to RIA Novosti, the Republicans will investigate and make sure that Biden is responsible for the careless storage of classified documents.

As explained by Gosar, this is a criminal offense, which, according to US law, is fraught with imprisonment for up to ten years.

According to the congressman, Biden, as vice president, “stole secret documents and secretly hid them” in his office, but members of the Democratic Party “suddenly didn’t care.”

• US House of Representatives meeting

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• © Chip Somodevilla

The American leader's lawyer, Richard Sauber, for his part, claims that classified information got into Biden's mansion allegedly by mistake.

“During the audit, lawyers found among the documents of a personal and political nature a small number of additional documents related to the administration of President Obama and Vice President Biden, classified as “secret”.

All but one of the documents were found in a storage room in the garage of the President's residence in Wilmington.

One one-page document was found in the next room among the materials stored there, ”Sauber said.

He also informed about close cooperation with the Ministry of Justice throughout the entire audit, as well as with the special prosecutor in this case.

The discovery of documents in the garage of Joe Biden was commented by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.

“We haven’t been accused of having secret documents found in Biden’s garage yet?”

she joked.

Under the heading "secret"

In turn, the head of the US Department of Justice, Merrick Garland, said that the secret documents of the current president were also illegally stored in the office of the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, opened with the support of the University of Pennsylvania.

“On the evening of November 4, 2022, the Office of the Inspector General of the National Archives (USA.

) contacted the Attorney of the Department of Justice.

There he was told that the president's legal adviser had notified the National Archives that documents classified as "secret" had been found in the office of the Biden Center ... located in Washington.

This office did not have permission to store classified documents, ”Garland said.

He also said that his lawyer informed the Department of Justice about the discovery of secret documents in Biden's house on December 20, and then on January 12, when another similar file was found.

Readiness to assist the Ministry of Justice was announced in the State Department.

As the official representative of the American diplomatic department, Ned Price, noted during a briefing, the structure can assist in the investigation of the scandal over secret documents related to Biden, if requested, and is ready "for full cooperation."

The 46th President of the United States himself acknowledged the fact that secret documents were kept in the office of the Center for Diplomacy.

“I was made aware of this find, and I was surprised that government documents were taken to this office,” the head of the White House said during a press conference.

Information about the improper storage of classified documents by Biden was ridiculed by former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden.

According to him, he "and then more carefully" handled secret documents.

“At least I kept them in encrypted form!”

Snowden wrote on Twitter, also noting that the current head of the White House seems to have "taken with him more classified documents than many activist whistleblowers."

"It will be possible to avoid serious problems"

Political analysts interviewed by RT call the scandal over the discovery of secret documents from Joe Biden a "resonant case."

“Given that Biden himself kept classified files in at least two locations, his criticism and the wave of negativity from the Democrats against the 45th head of the White House, Donald Trump, who was also convicted of having classified documents, now smacks of hypocrisy,” the report said. in a conversation with RT, political scientist-Americanist Malek Dudakov.

As Yury Rogulev, director of the Franklin Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the United States at Moscow State University, admitted, in contrast to the situation around Biden, in the story with Trump, the special services probably contributed to the fact that some secret documents ended up in the personal archives of the ex-president.

“A lot says that in this case, Trump was simply framed.

Accusations against him of espionage and theft of secret documents are quite possible in order to prevent him from participating in the 2024 elections, ”the analyst said in a comment to RT.

• US Department of Justice

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• © Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto

As for the current situation around the current head of the White House, then, from the point of view of Rogulev, it has a completely different background.

“In the environment of Biden, when he was still vice president, apparently, they simply showed negligence.

These documents were in the wrong place, and they actually had access to them.

But the essence of the scandal lies, first of all, in the fact that what is possible for Biden is for some reason forbidden to Trump, ”Rogulev stated.

At the same time, analysts agree that for Biden, the situation associated with secret documents looks much less dangerous than a similar case for Trump.

“This is a federal offense.

It threatens ordinary Americans, and therefore Trump, with prison terms.

But Biden, most likely, will be able to avoid serious problems, since as long as he is in the presidency of the United States, he is inviolable.

At the same time, the political consequences for him are likely to be significant.

He will have to wait until the end of the investigation, which is being conducted by the special prosecutor, and then make excuses, ”says Dudakov.

In his opinion, Biden, given his plans for re-election, is completely inappropriate for another scandal.

“He is going to run for president again.

But because of this scandal, it is unclear whether he will postpone these intentions or abandon them altogether.

Both scenarios are possible.

After all, the Republicans can use this scandal for their own purposes, given that they are ready to start an investigation, ”Dudakov suggested.

He is also sure that, in addition to public criticism and a possible investigation, Biden's political opponents will try to organize the procedure for his impeachment.

“And all this can have an extremely negative impact on the image and rating of Biden, whose popularity in the United States is not so high anyway,” he believes.

Yuri Rogulev adheres to a similar position.

In his opinion, the scandal around the current head of the White House may become one of the components of the Republican campaign against Biden on the eve of the presidential election.

“Republicans in the House of Representatives will do everything to launch Biden’s impeachment proceedings.

In addition to the situation with secret documents, we can expect reminders of a number of other scandals, including those around the son of the head of the White House.

If the Republicans succeed in initiating impeachment, this will further hit the positions of the Democrats, who, apparently, are still betting on Biden in the context of the run-up to the presidential election, ”concluded the expert.