Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said Monday that the committee will “continue to press the Biden Administration” regarding who had access to classified documents stored at President Joe Biden’s private Wilmington, Delaware, residence after the White House suggested that there are no records of visitors to the home.
“The White House, National Archives, and the Justice Department withheld information from Congress and the American people about classified records found in unsecure locations from Joe Biden’s time as vice president,” Comer told Fox News digital, adding:
The American people deserve transparency, not secrecy. We will continue to press the Biden Administration for answers about who had access to these classified documents and why Biden aides were permitted to rummage through the Wilmington residence after the appointment of a special counsel.
On Sunday, Comer penned a letter to White House chief of staff Ron Klain calling for visitor logs from the residence to be released, citing “serious national security implications,” as Breitbart News reported.
The building that housed office space of President Joe Biden’s former institute, the Penn Biden Center, is seen at the corner of Constitution and Louisiana Avenue NW, in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. Potentially classified documents were found on Nov. 2, 2022, in a “locked closet” in the office, according to special counsel to the president Richard Sauber. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Rep. James Comer (R-KY) talks to reporters as he walks to the House chamber, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Comer wrote in part:
Given the serious national security implications, the White House must provide the Wilmington residence’s visitor log. As Chief of Staff, you are head of the Executive Office of the President and bear responsibility to be transparent with the American people on these important issues related to the White House’s handling of this matter.
Biden’s mishandling of classified materials raises the issue of whether he has jeopardized our national security. Without a list of individuals who have visited his residence, the American people will never know who had access to these highly sensitive documents.
As the Associated Press noted on Sunday, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi stated the agency does not keep visitor logs for the residence.
“We don’t independently maintain our own visitor logs because it’s a private residence,” Guglielmi said.
White House spokesman Ian Sams issued a similar statement.
“Like every President in decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” said Sams.
Thus far, some 25 classified documents have been located between Biden’s Wilmington home and the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC.