麻豆影视

Skip to main content

U.S. House GOP demands visitor logs in Biden classified docs case

Share
WASHINGTON -

Newly empowered U.S. House Republicans on Sunday demanded the White House turn over all information related to its searches that have uncovered classified documents at President Joe Biden's home and former office in the wake of more records found at his Delaware residence.

鈥淲e have a lot of questions," said Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

Comer, R-Ky., said he wants to see all documents and communications related to the searches by the Biden team, as well as visitor logs of the president's home in Wilmington, Delaware, from Jan. 20, 2021, to present. He said the aim is to determine who might have had access to classified material and how the records got there.

The White House on Saturday said it had discovered five additional pages of classified documents at Biden's home on Thursday, the same day a special counsel was appointed to review the matter.

In a letter Sunday to White House chief of staff Ron Klain, Comer criticized the searches by Biden representatives when the Justice Department was beginning to investigate and said Biden's 鈥渕ishandling of classified materials raises the issue of whether he has jeopardized our national security." Comer demanded that the White House provide all relevant information including visitor logs by the end of the month.

Appearing on CNN's 鈥淪tate of the Union,鈥 Comer referred to Biden's home as a 鈥渃rime scene" though he acknowledged that it was not clear whether laws were broken.

鈥淢y concern is that the special counsel was called for, but yet hours after that we still had the president鈥檚 personal attorneys, who have no security clearance, still rummaging around the president鈥檚 residence, looking for things 鈥 I mean that would essentially be a crime scene, so to speak," Comer said.

While the U.S. Secret Service provides security at the president's private residence, it does not maintain visitor logs, agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Sunday.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 independently maintain our own visitor logs because it鈥檚 a private residence,鈥 Guglielmi said. He added that the agency does screen visitors to the president鈥檚 properties but doesn鈥檛 maintain records of those checks.

White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Biden has independently maintained records of who has visited his residence.

Asked about Comer鈥檚 request for logs and communications regarding the search for documents, White House spokesman Ian Sams responded: 鈥淚 would simply refer you to what Congressman Comer himself told CNN this morning: 鈥楢t the end of the day, my biggest concern isn鈥檛 the classified documents to be honest with you.鈥 That says it all.鈥

In that CNN interview, Comer had added that House Republicans did not trust the Justice Department to give the matter of Biden's classified documents an appropriate level of scrutiny. The House Judiciary Committee on Friday requested that Attorney General Merrick Garland turn over information related to the discovery of documents and Garland's appointment of special counsel Richard Hur to oversee the investigation.

White House officials "can say they鈥檙e being transparent, but it鈥檚 anything but,鈥 the committee chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News Channel's 鈥淪unday Morning Futures.鈥

White House lawyer Richard Sauber said in a statement Saturday that a total of six pages of classified documents were found from Biden's time serving as vice president in the Obama administration during a search of Biden鈥檚 private library. The White House had said previously that only a single page was found there.

The latest disclosure was in addition to the discovery of documents found in December in Biden鈥檚 garage and in November at his former offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington.

Sauber said that Biden鈥檚 personal lawyers, who did not have security clearances, stopped their search after finding the first page on Wednesday evening. Sauber found the remaining material Thursday, as he was facilitating their retrieval by Justice Department. Sauber did not explain why the White House waited two days to provide an updated accounting. The White House is already facing scrutiny for waiting more than two months to acknowledge the discovery of the initial group of documents at the Biden office.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said the Justice Department rightfully appointed special counsels to 鈥済et to the bottom鈥 of the Biden classified documents matter as well as in a separate investigation into the mishandling of classified documents at former President Donald Trump鈥檚 private club and residence in Florida.

But Raskin also stressed key differences between the two cases, including that Biden's team readily handed over documents to the National Archives compared with Trump's repeated resistance to such requests.

鈥淲e should keep a sense of proportion and measure about what we鈥檙e talking about,鈥 Raskin told CNN.

Asked Sunday if his oversight committee would investigate Trump's handling of classified documents as well, Comer demurred.

鈥淭here have been so many investigations of President Trump, I don鈥檛 feel like we need to spend a whole lot of time investigating President Trump, because the Democrats have done that for the past six years,鈥 he said.

___

Madhani reported from Wilmington, Delaware.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

Childhood sleep issues may raise suicide risk, study finds

If your child sometimes has trouble sleeping, it may be easy to chalk it up to a phase they will grow out of one day. But a new study suggests possible serious consequences for this line of thought 鈥 such as a higher risk for suicidal ideation or attempts when they are older.

Local Spotlight

Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.

Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.

They say a dog is a man鈥檚 best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.