There’s an important aspect of the Joe Biden classified documents scandal that may help do him in if the powers that be take this case at all seriously.
Media is now reporting that it wasn’t only the classified documents that the authorities seized from Biden’s home, but they also seized some of the handwritten notebooks that he kept during the time that he was president.
Why is this so important? While the notebooks may not themselves have been “classified,” if he took the classified documents and then wrote about the sensitive information in the notebooks, that means the notebooks are containing that sensitive material too.
The notebooks were seized because Biden’s writings on some of the pages relate to his official business as vice president, including details of his diplomatic engagements during the Obama administration, and may reference classified information, this person said. They said the notebooks do not have classified markings on them, but some of the handwritten notes inside of them could be considered as such given their sensitive content.
Other pages in the notebooks, while they may not contain potentially classified information, could still be considered government property under the Presidential Records Act because they pertain to official business Biden conducted as vice president, the person familiar with the investigation said. [….]
Bauer’s spokesperson on Friday declined to comment when asked whether Biden knew the notebooks were packed in boxes that left with him at the end of the Obama administration, if he’s accessed them since leaving the vice presidency and whether he thought the notebooks were his personal property.
There are a lot of notebooks, described as a “large” collection. So that creates another question where they may have to make an assessment of what information might be in there that could be sensitive and why Biden was writing that information down if it was sensitive. That suggests again that he did not take classified documents “seriously,” as his team keeps insisting. You shouldn’t be trying to copy down classified information.
Plus, there’s another problem: if he has notes from classified documents they discovered at his home, then he’s sort of blown that whole “I was surprised” tactic. You’re not surprised if you’ve taken notes on the information and the documents are in your home. Some have speculated that some of the documents taken may relate to either the book he was writing. That could again show that wasn’t an accident, the documents were taken deliberately. The biggest problem would be in any of the classified documents and notes related to the Biden family’s foreign business dealings. Then that could be regarded as a cover-up and further potential crime.
The FBI searched his home for at least 12 hours last week. It’s not clear yet if they’ve searched the Penn Biden Center office (where other documents were found) or his Rehoboth Beach home. Biden refused to answer that question when asked by reporters at the end of this week. There have also been calls to search his Senate records that are being held at the University of Delaware since among the classified documents found at Biden’s home were some from his Senate days.