James Comer demanded the White House explain why it released an “incomplete and misleading” timeline related to the discovery of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center.
Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said the panel obtained evidence that President Biden’s aides began examining the material in his personal office nearly 20 months before the sensitive papers were allegedly discovered.
“The committee is concerned with omissions in President Biden’s timeline based on the following findings,” Comer said in a letter sent to White House Counsel Edward Siskel on Wednesday.
Annie Tomasini, the president’s 80-year-old senior adviser, was the first of five White House staffers and one Defense Department staffer to rummage through documents and materials in the Biden think tank’s Washington, DC office, Comer alleged.
This incident happened just two months after the inauguration of the president, on March 18, 2021.
The House Oversight Committee says it has evidence that a White House employee inspected President Biden’s Penn Center office in March 2021, earlier than previously known.ZUMAPRESS.com
The Kentucky Republican detailed four other expeditions to obtain previously unknown materials from the Penn Biden Center.
On May 24, 2022, Comer alleged that former counsel and White House Assistant to the President Dana Remus contacted former Biden aide and Defense Department staffer Kathy Chung – via her personal email address – to retrieve the commander-in-chief’s papers at the Penn Biden Center.
A month later, on June 28, 2022, Chung packed up Biden’s belongings at the think tank’s office, according to Comer.
A dozen classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center on November 2, 2022. AFP via Getty Images
Then, on June 30, 2022, Remus, White House staffer Anthony Bernal and another unidentified White House employee went to the Penn Biden Center to “take possession of boxes of documents and materials but were unable to load all the boxes into their vehicle.”
“The next wave is evaluating files and looking at boxes,” according to the surveillance chairman, starting on Oct. 12. 2022, when White House staffer Ashley Williams and Biden’s personal attorney Pat Moore visit the president’s former office.
The next day, Williams returned to the Penn Biden Center and left with “several” Biden boxes, and Bob Bauer, the president’s personal attorney, texted Chung that Moore had begun sorting through the boxes.
“Each of the above meetings has been omitted from the public statements of the White House personal counsel and President Biden,” Comer argued, noting that the January statement from Bauer included an “inexplicable” timeline of events beginning on November 2, 2022 — when lawyers claim he first times came across classified material stored at the Penn Biden Center.
Comer demanded interviews with several White House staffers involved in moving boxes from the Penn Biden Center.AP
“President Biden’s timeline is incomplete and confusing,” Comer wrote. “It set aside months of communication, planning and coordination among several White House officials, Ms. Chung, Penn Biden Center employees and President Biden’s personal attorney to retrieve the box containing the classified material.”
The watchdog chairman added that “there is no reasonable explanation as to why many of these White House staffers and lawyers are so concerned about taking boxes that they believe contain only personal documents and materials.”
The requests include transcripts of interviews with White House staff involved in previously unknown activities at the Penn Biden Center, and access to all White House communications regarding the movement of material from think tanks and the drafting of public statements related to the discovery of sensitive documents.
The letter was issued days after special counsel Robert Hur, who is overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into Biden’s mishandling of White House documents, held two “voluntary” interviews with the president at the executive residence.
“As we have said from the beginning, the President and the White House are cooperating with this investigation, and as it is appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly, as transparently as we can consistent with protecting and preserving the integrity of the investigation,” said Ian Sams. , spokesman for the White House Counsel’s Office, Monday.
Discovery on Nov. 2. 2022, at least a dozen classified documents – some related to the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Iran – in his old office near the US Capitol were kept secret by the White House through the 2022 midterm elections and for weeks after.
More sensitive documents were found at Biden’s Wimington home in January after an FBI search. The bureau also searched the President’s Rehoboth, Del., home as part of the investigation but found no additional documents.
Biden has dismissed the shocking discovery as just “stray papers” that ended up on his property and private office because of careless aides cleaning his White House office over the past decade.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
