United States Secret Service Archives

Democrats becoming increasingly critical of Biden’s classified documents

January 23, 2023

Democrats are becoming increasingly critical of President Biden’s handling of classified documents. Their statements came after the Justice Department searched President Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware Friday and found six more documents. Some were from his eight years as vice president while others went all the way back to his time as a senator.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said it’s “unacceptable” and that Biden should be “embarrassed.”

“When that information is found it diminishes the stature of any person who is in possession of it. Because it’s not supposed to happen. Whether it was the fault of a staffer or attorney makes no difference. The elected official bears ultimate responsibility,” Durbin said on CNN’s State of the Union.

But Democrats are still supportive of the president’s response. They said he has been more transparent and more cooperative than former President Trump, who defied a subpoena for documents at his Florida home.

“President Biden is someone who respects the rule of law, who respects the importance of classified documents, and that this was a consensual search. That the Department of Justice was invited to come to his home and to search every nook and cranny, top to bottom, to find anything they possibly could,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said on ABC’s This Week.

The senators explained that when they view classified information, they do it in a locked room or SCIF (secure compartmented information facility) and can’t take anything with them when they leave. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsels to investigate both the Biden and Trump cases.

“I think that Merrick Garland did the right thing by putting the special counsel, and I think that we should wait until the special counsel, rather than making this a political circus, let them find out the facts. What one was more damaging? Are they both about the same, did not cause any problem? Or is one more reckless and irresponsible than the other?” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., said on Meet the Press.

In addition to the special counsel, President Biden is also being investigated by the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee. Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., put in an official request with the Secret Service to hand over all the information it has about visitors to the Biden’s Wilmington residence by Feb. 6.
White House, Secret Service don’t keep visitor logs for Biden home

January 16, 2023

Neither the White House nor the Secret Service maintain visitor logs for President Biden’s personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware. They’re making the disclosure because the House Oversight Committee put in an official request with White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain for all logs going back to Jan. 20, 2021, the day President Biden took office.

“Like every president in decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” the White House counsel’s office said in a statement obtained by Fox. “But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them.”

A Secret Service spokesman said the agency does screen visitors but does not maintain a record of who they checked.

“We don’t independently maintain our own visitor logs because it’s a private residence,” Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told reporters.

The Secret Service said the same for former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home when classified documents were found there.

In his letter to Klain, Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., wrote it is “troubling” that classified information has been stored at the Biden home.

“President Biden’s mishandling of classified materials raises the issue of whether he has jeopardized our national security. Without a list of individuals who have visited his residence, the American people will never know who had access to these highly sensitive documents,” Comer wrote.

Comer also requested all documents and communications by Biden aides that are related to the case.

“Because this is the same type of investigation that the Democrats were so outraged and launched and demanded happen to President Trump. What we see with President Biden is there are multiple locations. We would never have known about the possession of the classified documents were it not for investigative reporting by CBS,” Comer said on CNN’s State of the Union.

Democrats contend President Biden’s team has handled the situation well and returned the documents the day they were discovered.

“That is a very different posture than what we saw with Donald Trump, where he was fighting for a period of more than 8 months to not turn over hundreds of missing documents that the Archives was asking about,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said on State of the Union. “I think every American has an interest in seeing that classified documents are properly handled by whoever is president and by any administration. And all we’re looking for is equal treatment.”

A growing list of congressional Democrats have spoken out, saying this is a serious matter and needs to be thoroughly investigated. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel on Thursday.

The AP contributed to this report.
Secret Service scrutinized, again, after VP Harris motorcade crash

October 6, 2022

The United States Secret Service is under the microscope, yet again. Reports revealed this week some of the agents protecting Vice President Kamala Harris might have lied about the cause of an accident involving the vice president’s motorcade.

The Washington Post reports the one-car accident happened Monday on a closed road in D.C. The highly trained government agent, charged with the protection of the Vice President of the United States of America, “over-corrected” while driving, hit the curb and blew a tire.

No one was hurt in the crash, but the vice president had to be transferred to another vehicle before being whisked-away to the White House. While the accident is bad enough, the situation is made worse by reports the agents on scene initially said a mechanical failure led to the accident, and not driver error.

The accident happened Monday morning, by Monday afternoon Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle found out agents on scene were not truthful in their initial security alert. This is just the latest black eye for the Secret Service which has a history of covering up agency missteps.

There are the deleted Jan. 6 text messages between agents assigned to then-President Donald Trump. There were at least two incidents of armed men attacking the White House in 2011 and 2014. And who could forget the Colombian prostitute scandal of 2012?

Director Cheatle, who’s only been on the job for about a month, was reportedly disturbed by the inaccuracy of the initial accident alert from Monday’s crash, and was relieved to get the fuller account later in the day.

Democrats becoming increasingly critical of Biden’s classified documents

White House, Secret Service don’t keep visitor logs for Biden home

Secret Service scrutinized, again, after VP Harris motorcade crash

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