Multiple reports from establishment media outlets indicate the White House and the Justice Department agreed to hide President Joe Biden’s classified document scandal from the American public, despite claims of transparency after it was leaked to the press.
At least three times the establishment media reported that Biden and the DOJ agreed to hide the scandal from public view with likely had no plans to disclose it until the scandal was leaked to CBS News on January 9, weeks after the initial trove was found by Biden’s personal lawyers November 2.
White House officials are reportedly suspicious about how Biden’s classified document scandal was leaked to the press after only a select group of White House and DOJ officials knew about the violation.
The latest report of the alleged coverup came Wednesday from the New York Times, which recounted its previous reporting and the initial report by the Washington Post on January 19.
“Democratic allies are increasingly frustrated by a White House that hid the discovery of secret documents from the public for two months and, even once it was reported, provided only partial information, then declared the search complete only to have more papers turn up,” the Times reported. “They promptly contacted the authorities [DOJ] after the documents were found and have sought to work collaboratively to find any other stray papers.”
“That cost them in the public sphere because they concluded that it would be more advantageous not to publicly disclose the discoveries, so as not to antagonize Justice Department officials examining the situation and ultimately persuade them that the incident was nothing more than a good-faith mistake,” the Times‘ Wednesday report stated.
The Washington Post reported that not only did the White House and DOJ try to obscure the scandal from public view, but they also refused to divulge that the second trove of classified documents was already unearthed at Biden’s home in Wilmington when CBS News first contacted the White House about the initial leak of classified documents apparently illegally stored at the Biden Penn Center.
Biden on hiding classified documents in his home, office, and garage for six years: “I have no regrets” pic.twitter.com/rBgDEgMOfv
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 19, 2023
“Early on, Biden’s attorneys and Justice Department investigators both thought they had a shared understanding about keeping the matter quiet,” the Post acknowledged, referencing the Biden administration’s collaboration to conceal revelations of the second trove of stashed documents.
The Times reported the Post’s account on January 20. “The quiet cooperation continued for weeks” between the aides and the DOJ.
Despite the effort to conceal the scandal, Attorney General Merrick Garland claimed Monday his department has not applied a double standard of justice to the scandal.
“We do not have different rules for Democrats or Republicans, different rules for the powerful or the powerless, different rules for the rich and for the poor, we apply the facts, and the law in each case in a neutral, non-partisan manner,” Garland alleged.
It’s unclear why Biden’s personal attorneys were initially searching for his illegally stashed documents at the Biden Penn Center. The White House and DOJ have failed to provide the initial reason or cause for the search.
Former President Donald Trump believes a double standard of justice has been apparent regarding the documents found at Mar-a-Lago. Trump has claimed he declassified the documents before the materials arrived in Florida, a power a vice president might not have.
“Biden lied to the American people and weaponized the Justice Department — or as I call it, the Injustice Department — to go after me for the very crime he actually committed,” Trump stated. “The difference is that while I did everything right — I did nothing wrong — Biden did everything wrong.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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