ELECTIONS, POLITICS, & GOVERNMENT
Classified documents belonging to Biden discovered, law expert weighs in
Jan 10, 2023, 7:30 PM
President Joe Biden, pictured here at the White House on Oct. 11, 2022. This week it was revealed that classified documents belonging to the president from his time as vice president were discovered in a private office in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: Susan Walsh/Associated Press
WASHNGTON, D.C. — Earlier this week, it was revealed that classified documents belonging to President Joe Biden were discovered in November at his private office in Washington, D.C.
Biden was using the office as part of a partnership with the University of Pennsylvania from 2017 to 2019. The documents are from his time as vice president.
Former U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah John Huber joined Dave & Dujanovic with Dave Noriega and Debbie Dujanovic to discuss the situation. Huber was appointed to the position by President Obama and then reappointed by President Trump.
“I just shake my head,” Dujanovic said. “I’m like what in the world is going on with our classified documents? I didn’t think this was that hard. Just keep them classified, keep them in the right place.”
Dujanovic asks Huber for his initial thoughts on the Biden situation, coming just months after FBI agents raided President Trump’s residence in Florida to retrieve classified documents.
“I’m echoing you and everyone in America,” Huber said. “Here we go again. And it’s not, it’s just not Donald Trump. It’s just not Joe Biden. This issue transcends administrations and decades. I mean, we have had so many allegations along the same vein over the years that it is a little bit silly.”
Huber agrees with Dujanovic’s assessment that it should be easy to keep classified documents secured.
“But apparently it’s not,” he said. “Because it doesn’t matter what party you’re in, it doesn’t matter what decade or administration.”
Are documents classified too harshly?
Noriega asks if documents are getting classified too harshly.
“You know, there’s different flavors of classification,” Huber said. “But I think my impression in my 27 years of government is there probably is an over classification issue in government.”
Dujanovic asks if the government is becoming too relaxed in how it tracks such documents.
“You got a government full of individuals, human beings, and a lot of different personalities,” Huber said. “And it doesn’t fall into a comfortable clean category that this is a Republican issue, this is a Democratic issue. It does not apply that way. There are challenges with this in every administration.”
Huber says the situation is much deeper than simply a what-are-you-thinking-there kind of situation?
“And so, it’s not just a how dumb can you be kind of situation,” he said. “There’s something more here that suggests it’s because it’s such a pervasive problem.”
A new twist in any possible case against former President Trump
Huber says a prosecutor will now have a more difficult time bringing a case against former President Trump because of the new dynamic.
“If you’re thinking about fundamental fairness,” he said. “And if this is an issue that pervades all administrations, all types of offices and departments, it really maybe paints a different color of the picture than the black and white world that some people are saying the former president is facing. It’s a little more gray.”
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