Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) said the government records with classified marks found at President Joe Biden’s Delaware home and a Washington office Biden had used could have been “planted.”
“Alleged classified documents showing up allegedly in the possession of Joseph Biden … I’m suspicious of the timing of it,” Johnson told Fox News on Jan. 12.
On Thursday, Biden’s lawyer confirmed the second batch of classified documents was found in the garage and an adjacent room inside the president’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware.
“I’m also aware of the fact that things can be planted on people. … Things can be planted in places and then discovered conveniently,” Johnson continued.
The congressman didn’t offer any evidence for his claim.
Despite the speculation, the president himself acknowledged the discovery of the material.
“As I said earlier this week, and by the way, my Corvette is in a locked garage. OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,” Biden spoke about the latest discovery with reporters later Thursday.
Asked whether the document was found in a locked garage, Biden said, “‘Yes, as well as my Corvette.”
“People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously,” Biden continued. “I also said we’re cooperating, fully cooperated with the Justice Department’s review.”
Second Batch of Classified Documents
On Nov. 12, White House attorney Richard Sauber said that they searched Biden’s residences in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach after the discovery of documents with classified markings inside a locked closet at the Biden Penn Center, a think tank office in Washington that Biden used between 2017 to 2019.
Sauber didn’t say when the search was conducted. The first trove of classified materials was discovered on Nov. 2, days before the midterm elections, and it wasn’t disclosed to the public until two months later.
In Thursday’s statement, Sauber said the attorneys “completed the review last night.”
“During the review, the lawyers discovered among personal and political papers a small number of additional Obama-Biden Administration records with classified markings,” Sauber said.
The lawyer added most of the government documents marked classified were found in a storage space inside the garage at Biden’s Wilmington residence, with one other with classified markings found in an adjacent room. “No documents were found in the Rehoboth Beach residence.”
DOJ Investigation
Later Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur as a special counsel to investigate “whether any person or entity violated the law” with these documents.
Hur served as the U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland before he was appointed by former President Donald Trump as the top law enforcement official in Maryland in 2018.
“I will conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgment,” Hur said in a statement issued after his appointment. “I intend to follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly, without fear or favor.”
Sauber also released a statement saying they believe the review will show that these documents were “inadvertently misplaced.”
“We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake,” the president’s lawyer said.
Call for Congressional Investigation
“Not once but now we’re finding in two different locations, classified information just out there in the open,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters on Thursday. “I think Congress has to investigate this.”
Before McCarthy’s comment, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, had already said the House panel was investigating Biden’s handling of classified material.
“With or without a special counsel, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee will investigate President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents and the Swamp’s efforts to hide this information from the American people,” Comer said Thursday before the appointment of the special counsel.
“The National Archives and Records Administration, the White House, and the Department of Justice were aware of the classified documents stashed in a closet at the Penn Biden Center before the election, and now we’ve learned classified documents kept in President Biden’s garage were found in December,” he said.
“There are many questions about why the Biden Administration kept this matter a secret from the public, who had access to the office and the residence, and what information is contained in these classified documents.”
Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
Dorothy Li is a reporter for The Epoch Times based in Europe.
