Around the same time that former President Donald Trump’s Mar a Lago home was raided by the FBI, which was hunting for classified documents the former president allegedly kept stored on the property, boxes and boxes of classified documents were found on some of President Joe Biden’s properties.
Some were even found in his garage, which president tried to mitigate by saying it was “locked,” and so a probe into Biden’s handling of classified information after his days as Vice President began, one which is potentially more problematic for Biden than Trump because Biden doesn’t have even the pretense of having the Presidential Records Act on his side.
In any case, the probe into Biden’s conduct and handling of classified documents was somewhat back in the news last week, as the Biden White House announced on the night of Monday the 9th that President Biden was interviewed over two days by Special Counsel Robert Hur. Hur, as background, was appointed by Biden Administration Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the probe.
Speaking about the probe, White House spokesman Ian Sams released a statement on the matter in which he said that the interview was voluntary: “The voluntary interview was conducted at the White House over two days, Sunday and Monday, and concluded Monday.”
Continuing, Sams added, “As we have said from the beginning, the President and the White House are cooperating with this investigation, and as it has been appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly, being as transparent as we can consistent with protecting and preserving the integrity of the investigation.” He ended, “We would refer other questions to the Justice Department at this time.”
Biden, for his part, has insisted that he did nothing wrong with the documents. Speaking to reporters on the issue, he said, “We found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place. We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department.”
Continuing, Biden added that he was “fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly.” He went on to say that there’s nothing incriminating that would be found, telling the reporters, “I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there. There’s no there there.”
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PBS adds that it is not necessarily unprecedented for a president to have to sit for an interview over a criminal matter, writing, “It is hardly unprecedented for sitting presidents to be interviewed in criminal investigations. President George W. Bush sat for a 70-minute interview as part of an investigation into the leak of the identify of a CIA operative. President Bill Clinton in 1998 underwent more than four hours of questioning from independent counsel Kenneth Starr before a federal grand jury.”
President Trump, however, did not sit for an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. He and his legal team instead submitted written answers to questions when dealing with that probe during much of his presidency.