Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump, not President Joe Biden, two weeks after Biden’s classified briefings and documents were discovered at the Penn Biden Center.
On November 18, Garland named former federal prosecutor Jack Smith special counsel for two probes by the Department of Justice of Trump. About two weeks prior, on November 2, Biden’s classified documents were reportedly unearthed at Biden’s so-called “think tank,” the Penn Biden Center, by the president’s attorney.
The timeline suggests Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate Biden’s 2024 presidential political opponent for allegedly mishandling classified documents while potentially knowing Biden had allegedly committed the same violation.
Attorney General Merrick Garland listens listens as President Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Friday, May 13, 2022, during an event to highlight state and local leaders who are investing American Rescue Plan funding. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Garland could have known about Biden’s mishandling of documents just six days before the midterm elections. Critics say Garland’s decision to not disclose to revelations before January was a political calculation to benefit Democrats in the midterms.
Biden has claimed he did not know classified documents were stashed at the Penn Biden Center, but Mike Davis, founder and president of the pro-Trump Article III Project, called Biden’s claim “nonsense.”
“Biden moved these stolen classified records twice: a. Before January 20, 2017 (left White House) b. After moving into new office in February 2018,” he tweeted. “Biden had these stolen classified records in his personal files. Garland must appoint a Special Counsel.”
Biden’s stark opinion on the mishandling of classified documents is not in dispute. In September, Biden appeared on “60 Minutes” and slammed Trump as “irresponsible” for allegedly storing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
“How that could possibly happen? How anyone could be that irresponsible,” the president said. “And it just — totally irresponsible.”
“And I thought, what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods?” Biden added.
Biden’s condemnation of Trump has caused some critics to point out that then-Vice President Biden did not have the authority to declassify documents, while Trump, as president, had the authority to do so.
“Vice presidents cannot declassify documents. And the fact that Joe Biden is in possession of classified documents when he was vice president, signals we need to have a serious investigation into this,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told C-SPAN.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.