White House AGAIN defends response to Biden files debacle: 'Pretty transparent ... trends now
The White House insisted yet again on Wednesday that it has been 'transparent' about President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents amid intense scrutiny over the timeline of its disclosures.
It comes after the White House Counsel's Office confirmed that same morning that the FBI was searching Biden's holiday home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware for more secret files.
The search turned up no new pages. As many as 30 have reportedly been found across Biden's main private residence in Wilmington and a Washington, DC think tank where he previously held a private office.
But the quick disclosure of that FBI action stands in stark contrast to the months-long delay in revealing that the bureau also searched the Penn Biden Center in mid-November, after the first batch of classified files was found there earlier that same month.
That FBI search was not revealed until Tuesday of this week.
Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House Counsel's Office, was asked by reporters why today's search was made known so quickly but the Penn Biden Center operation was kept secret.
White House Counsel's Office spokesman Ian Sams fielded questions from reporters on Wednesday, hours after the FBI searched President Joe Biden's Rehoboth Beach holiday home for more classified documents
'Do the American people have a right to know about that?' ABC correspondent Mary Bruce asked.
'Yeah, I think we’ve been pretty transparent from the very beginning with providing information as it occurs throughout this process,' Sams said.
'You know, we have released probably thousands of words of statements from the President’s personal attorney in the White House Counsel’s Office about the process that has been undertaken here — that process that has been fully coordinated with the Justice Department as they conduct an ongoing investigation.'
Pressed again on the delay, Sams said, 'With regards to that specific question, I don’t have anything to add for you right now.'
'I think it’s probably more appropriate — that question, specifically, about something that happened a few months ago — be asked to the Justice Department,' he added.
The National Archives, which was first alerted about the original batch of documents by Biden's private lawyers on November 2, was prevented from notifying the public that classified files had been found at the DC think tank at the time.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman James Comer claimed on Tuesday night that the only two entities that could have given the order are the White House and the Department of Justice – putting the onus on either Biden or Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The National Archives prepared a press release to notify the public of the discovery, but was stopped from issuing it, Comer claimed.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky (pictured) said Tuesday that the National Archives was blocked from releasing a prepared statement on the discovery of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. in early November
'There are only two people that could have given those orders, and that's either the Department of Justice with Merrick Garland or the White House with Joe Biden,' the Kentucky Republican told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday evening.
'So, it shows right there that this Department of Justice and this White House is interfering with this,' he added.
The latest revelation comes after Comer's panel conducted a lengthy interview with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) general counsel Gary Stern.
Stern informed the Oversight Committee that he couldn't
