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The White House and the US Secret Service said Monday they were not keeping visitor logs for President Joe Biden’s personal home in Wilmington, Delaware, a day after a senior House Republican called for their release. .
“Like any president through decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” White House Counsel’s Office spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement. “But upon taking office, President Biden reinstated the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitor diaries, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration abolished them.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain on Sunday asking for visitor logs as the Justice Department and Republicans of the House are investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents from his time in the Obama administration. . The White House acknowledged on Saturday that more pages with classified marks were discovered at Biden’s home in Delaware than previously disclosed.
In his letter to Klain, Comer said, “Given the serious national security implications, the White House must provide the Wilmington Residence Visitor Log.”
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi echoed the White House: “We do not independently maintain our own visitor logs as this is a private residence.” He added that the Secret Service conducts background checks on those who come into contact with the Bidens at their homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, but the USSS only retains those records for a limited time. But Guglielmi said the agency would cooperate with any requests for information from Congress.
On Saturday, the White House said additional pages marked as classified by the Obama administration were found at Biden’s residence in Wilmington, in addition to the two batches that were previously disclosed earlier in the week. These documents were found in a Washington, DC office he previously used, in the garage of his Wilmington residence, and in a room adjacent to the garage. The slow trickle fueled the president’s criticism while allies thought the issue was not being dealt with quickly.
Biden is frustrated with the continued backlash he has faced and does not believe the response to the news has been handled well, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced last week the appointment of special counsel, Robert Hur, to oversee the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents. The House Judiciary Committee, now led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, in the GOP’s new majority house, also announced Friday that it had opened an investigation into the documents.
Hur’s appointment means Biden and former President Donald Trump face investigations by special advocates into their handling of classified documents after leaving office. Guglielmi said Monday that the Trump Organization tracks comings and goings at Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower, which the Secret Service has access to.
Biden’s allies have argued that his case differs dramatically from the criminal investigation surrounding his predecessor – primarily on the basis that Biden turned over documents once they were discovered when Trump failed to fully comply with a subpoena and withheld certain documents, which led to the execution of a search warrant. at his Mar-a-Lago estate in August.
“I mean, it’s totally different right now,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, adding that Biden, unlike Trump, “isn’t saying that like magic when he thinks of classified documents he can declassify them.”
“They’re not going to defy subpoenas or demand FBI raids to get the documents,” she added.
In a Sunday interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Comer explained why his committee was focusing on Biden’s documents but not Trump’s.
“I don’t think we need to spend a lot of time investigating President Trump because the Democrats have done that for the past six years,” said Comer, who wrote to the White House on Friday asking whether Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, could have accessed classified documents at the president’s residence.
In a statement, Sams said, “I would just refer you to what Congressman Comer himself told CNN on Sunday: ‘At the end of the day, my biggest concern isn’t the classified documents to be honest. with you. That says everything.”
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