Comer: DOJ Bars National Archives From Discussing Classified Material Retrieved from Biden

(CNSNews.com) – The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday conducted its first transcribed interview pertaining to alleged Biden family influence-peddling, Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) told Fox News’s Sean Hannity Tuesday night.

But the witness, the general counsel for the National Archives, couldn’t tell the committee everything it wanted to know, because he was instructed not to say anything about the classified documents retrieved from Joe Biden’s home and Washington, D.C., think tank.

The General Counsel is the National Archives’ chief legal officer and adviser.

“Well, right before the National Archives came in, they handed us a letter from the Department of Justice, informing them and us that the general counsel for the National Archives wasn’t allowed to say anything about the Biden documents,” Comer said:

“But we went ahead, and we had about a three-plus-hour transcribed interview with the general counsel. And what we learned was, there is a double standard here with how Donald Trump was treated versus Joe Biden.

“And I’ll give you an example, Shawn. If you go on the National Archives website, there’s pages and pages of press releases and information about the FBI’s raid into Mar-a-Lago and Donald Trump’s possession of classified documents. But there’s nothing on the website about Joe Biden. There wasn’t any press release or anything on the website about Joe Biden.

“So we asked the general counsel, why were there no press releases sent on Joe Biden once it was determined that he had classified documents in his possession?

“And the counsel said that he did do press releases, but he was ordered and told they couldn’t be published.

“So — we did ask who gave him the orders and he said, I can’t tell you that. But there are only two people that could have given him those orders, and that’s either the Department of Justice with Merrick Garland or the White House with Joe Biden.

“So it shows right there that this Department of Justice and this White House is interfering with this and treating Donald Trump very differently than they’re treating Joe Biden.”

Comer said committee members asked the National Archives lawyer why the White House is refusing to talk about the documents retrieved from Joe Biden. “Are they allowed to talk about their documents?” Comer said he asked him.

“And the general counsel for the National Archives said he didn’t have any problem with the White House being transparent about what’s going on with their investigation. So, it’s not the National Archives, it’s the Department of Justice. It is Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice.”

Comer noted that we know about Joe Biden’s possession of classified documents only because someone leaked the information to CBS:

“We would never have heard it from this White House,” he said. “They would have covered it up forever, like all the other cover-ups they’re doing with every major part of our investigation into the Biden family influence-peddling.”

Comer said not only is the Biden White House stonewalling his committee’s investigation; they’re refusing to release the same type of information regarding Joe Biden that they were happy to release about Donald Trump:

“We’ve requested the same type of information on Joe Biden that my predecessor, Democrat Chairwoman (Carolyn) Maloney, requested on Donald Trump. National Archives gave them every bit of information she requested on Donald Trump, but they never gave me any information.

“And once again, the reasoning was the general counsel said he published — he printed all the information — he answered all our questions — but he wasn’t allowed to turn it over to us. So once again, the only people that could prohibit him from answering our request was the Department of Justice or the White House.

According to the still-emerging timeline, classified material was discovered at the Penn-Biden Center in Washington, D.C., on November 2, which was 6 days before the midterm election and 68 days before the public learned about it.

Timeline

Nov. 2, 2022 – Classified documents found in Biden’s office at Penn-Biden Center in Washington by Biden’s attorneys as they packed up his office: National Archives took possession of those documents on Nov. 3.

Nov. 4: National Archives informs DOJ about the discovery of documents with classification markings.

Nov. 8: Midterm election

Nov. 14: Attorney General Merrick Garland asks U.S. Attorney John Lausch to determine if a special counsel should be appointed in Biden case, as has been done in Trump’s case.

Mid-November, new development: The FBI searches the Penn Biden Center office, CBS reported on January 31, 2023.

Dec. 20: Biden’s personal lawyers told Lausch that more classified material was found in Biden’s Wilmington garage. The FBI went to Biden’s Wilmington home to get the material.

Jan. 5: Lausch recommends the appointment of a special counsel.

Jan. 9: CBS News first reports the discovery of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center.

Jan. 10: Speaking in Mexico, Biden makes his first comments about the discovery of classified documents in his Wilmington home, saying he was “surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office. But I don’t know what’s in the documents,” Biden said. “I’ve — my lawyers have not suggested I ask what documents they were. I’ve turned over the boxes — they’ve turned over the boxes to the Archives. And we’re cooperating fully…”

Jan. 11: Biden’s personal lawyers search his Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach houses for other documents.

Jan. 12: President Joe Biden admitted at a press conference that he had documents with classification markings stored next to his Corvette in what he called “a locked garage” at his Wilmington home. “But as I said earlier this week, people know I take classified documents and classified material seriously. I also said we’re cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department’s review,” he said.

Jan. 12: Biden’s personal lawyers tell Lausch about an additional classified document found at the Wilmington home, in a room adjacent to the garage. Garland announces the appointment of a special counsel.

Jan. 14: Richard Sauber from the White House Counsel’s Office reveals that six more classified documents turned up at Biden’s Wilmington home, in addition to those in the garage and the single page found earlier in Biden’s (adjacent) library.

Jan. 19: Biden tells reporters in California: “We found a handful of documents that were…filed in the wrong place.  We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department.  We’re fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly. I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there.  I have no regrets.  I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do.  It’s exactly what we’re doing. There is no there there.”

Jan. 20: The FBI searches Biden’s Wilmington home and locates six items containing classification markings.

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