https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bidens-classified-document-stash-private-office-vice-president-donald-trump-jack-smith-merrick-garland-11673392667?mod=opinion_lead_pos2
Whatever gods are scripting America’s political drama these days, they sure do have a sense of humor. On Monday CBS broke the news that, days before the midterm elections, “roughly 10” documents with classification markings were found among Joe Biden’s vice presidential files in a private office he once used. A federal prosecutor is investigating, and the FBI is involved.
Not even George Santos could make up this plot twist. The documents discovered in Mr. Biden’s possession include “intelligence memos and briefing materials that covered topics including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom,” CNN reports.
Citing a single anonymous source, CNN says Mr. Biden “didn’t know the documents were there.” His personal lawyers found the classified material while packing files in a locked closet at an office that Mr. Biden used beginning in 2017. After the discovery, the National Archives was notified the same day, and the papers were handed over the following morning. Some of the documents were designated as “sensitive compartmented information,” which means they were classified above Top Secret.
News analysts are cautioning that this apparent mishandling of material is different from Mr. Trump’s retention of hundreds of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home, which ultimately triggered an extraordinary FBI search last year. That’s true as far as it goes. Mr. Biden’s office had many fewer documents, and he wasn’t wrangling with the National Archives for months over his right to keep them.