(The Guardian) Congressional leaders get to see Trump, Biden, Pence classified documents
We’ve known for months that Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Mike Pence were holding on to classified documents they apparently should not have possessed – but what, exactly, did they have? The leaders of Congress are finding out, after the Democratic and Republican leaders in each chamber as well as the top lawmakers on the intelligence committees were given access to the material taken from three men, Punchbowl News reports. It remains to be seen if the lawmakers will keep quiet about what they saw, or air their views about the issue, which presents varying degrees of legal peril for the three men.
Three powerful men in trouble: the classified documents scandal, explained
If there’s one lesson to be drawn from the classified documents scandal that’s gripped Washington since last August, it’s this: people who work at the White House apparently like to hang on to government secrets.
Now, the three powerful men implicated here are in varying degrees of trouble, though with none of their cases resolved, we don’t know yet how severe the consequences could be.
Donald Trump appears to be in the greatest peril. He’s being investigated by special counsel Jack Smith over the secret materials the FBI found when they searched Mar-a-Lago last August – which only happened after the former president refused months of entreaties to hand over all the materials that he had. Smith is also looking into Trump’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection and the broader effort to overturn the 2020 election.
But it turns out Joe Biden had his own stash of classified documents. Unlike Trump, the president reportedly started handing them over to government secret keepers as soon as he became aware he had the materials – which date back to his time as a senator and vice-president – at his former office and residence, though the White House did keep quiet for months about the discoveries after they were first made around the time of last November’s midterm election. Attorney general Merrick Garland has appointed another special prosecutor, Robert Hur, to look into whether Biden broke the law here.
Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence also kept classified documents at his home in Indiana, and has since turned them over to the powers that be. Garland has not appointed a special prosecutor to look into this.
We’ve known for months that Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Mike Pence were holding on to classified documents they apparently should not have possessed – but what, exactly, did they have? The leaders of Congress are finding out, after the Democratic and Republican leaders in each chamber as well as the top lawmakers on the intelligence committees were given access to the material taken from three men, Punchbowl News reports. It remains to be seen if the lawmakers will keep quiet about what they saw, or air their views about the issue, which presents varying degrees of legal peril for the three men.
Three powerful men in trouble: the classified documents scandal, explained
If there’s one lesson to be drawn from the classified documents scandal that’s gripped Washington since last August, it’s this: people who work at the White House apparently like to hang on to government secrets.
Now, the three powerful men implicated here are in varying degrees of trouble, though with none of their cases resolved, we don’t know yet how severe the consequences could be.
Donald Trump appears to be in the greatest peril. He’s being investigated by special counsel Jack Smith over the secret materials the FBI found when they searched Mar-a-Lago last August – which only happened after the former president refused months of entreaties to hand over all the materials that he had. Smith is also looking into Trump’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection and the broader effort to overturn the 2020 election.
But it turns out Joe Biden had his own stash of classified documents. Unlike Trump, the president reportedly started handing them over to government secret keepers as soon as he became aware he had the materials – which date back to his time as a senator and vice-president – at his former office and residence, though the White House did keep quiet for months about the discoveries after they were first made around the time of last November’s midterm election. Attorney general Merrick Garland has appointed another special prosecutor, Robert Hur, to look into whether Biden broke the law here.
Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence also kept classified documents at his home in Indiana, and has since turned them over to the powers that be. Garland has not appointed a special prosecutor to look into this.
