News that a fresh discovery of five pages of classified documents had been made at Joe Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, home prompted Republicans to erupt in indignation over the perceived “double standards” at play. Some questioned why the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had not yet raided his home, like was the case with former President Donald Trump.
They also lambasted the Democratic president’s Department of Justice (DOJ) as a ‘corrupt mess.’
Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert went on Twitter to point out that the new batch of sensitive information was found after White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that "the search of Biden's home was complete."
Screenshot of Twitter account of Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)
© Photo : Twitter
"Looks like they've got documents coming out of the woodworks over in Wilmington. Still no FBI raid…" Lauren Boebert queried.
Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz similarly tweeted to ask when a "full FBI raid" would happen.
Screenshot of Twitter account of Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
© Photo : Twitter
Tom Fitton, the President of Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, also tweeted that Biden White House Counsel had traveled to the president's Delaware home along with officials of the DOJ to look for more classified docs only after a Special Counsel had been appointed. He slammed Biden's DOJ as a "corrupt mess."
Screenshot of Twitter account of Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch public interest group.
© Photo : Twitter
US reporter Mollie Hemingway also hit social media, underscoring that the FBI had eagerly raided Trump's Mar-A-Lago while not even noticing VP Biden "hoovered up classified docs."
Screenshot of Twitter account of Fox News Contributor Mollie Hemingway.
© Photo : Twitter
Joe Biden, who has now found himself in the crosshairs over the classified documents row, had been quick to rip into the ex-POTUS Trump over the sensitive papers that were being housed at his Mar-a-Lago estate which prompted a raid by the FBI.
"How that could possibly happen, how one anyone could be that irresponsible," Biden fumed on 60 Minutes in September 2022, adding:
"And I thought what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods. By that, I mean, names of people helped or et cetera."
In August 2022, the FBI conducted a raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence as part of a probe into his post-presidential handling of classified documents.
Now, Donald Trump, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the matter, and slammed the “unannounced raid” on his home as “not necessary or appropriate," took to his social platform Truth Social to question whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will react similarly to the Biden discovery.
“When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House? These documents were definitely not declassified,” the former US president wrote.
The current developments come amid the discovery of several batches of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement think tank in Washington, and in filing cabinets, a private library and a locked garage Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, home dating to his tenure as Barack Obama's vice president.
On January 14, presidential counsel Richard Sauber announced that Joe Biden's lawyers had discovered five additional pages marked classified, saying:
"Because I have a security clearance, I went to Wilmington Thursday evening to facilitate providing the document the President's personal counsel found on Wednesday to the Justice Department. While I was transferring it to the [Department of Justice] officials who accompanied me, five additional pages with classifications markings were discovered among the material with it, for a total of six pages. The DoJ officials with me immediately took possession of them."
The Justice Department named seasoned trial lawyer and former DoJ official Robert Hur as special counsel in the Biden document case, with Hur taking over the probe from John Lausch.
Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican Congressmen recently appointed chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has vowed to keep a close eye on the DoJ's investigation, and figure out why the classified documents found ahead of the November midterms at the DC think tank didn't come to light at the time. Furthermore, the House Oversight Committee has launched a separate probe, with Committee chairman James Comer expressing concerns that President Biden may have "compromised (intelligence) sources and methods with his own mishandling of classified documents."