House Oversight Chair Demands Visitor Logs From Biden’s Home As GOP Vows To Investigate Classified Documents

Topline

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) demanded the White House release visitor logs from President Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home following revelations that classified documents were found in the president’s garage, as the GOP launches investigations into the discovery, which was made months after the FBI found classified records at former President Donald Trump’s home.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

Comer requested visitor logs dating back to Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021, and all documents and communications related to Biden aides’ searches for the records, in a letter to White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain on Sunday.

Citing “serious national security implications,” Comer speculated “whether any individuals with foreign connections to the Biden family” visited the president’s home and could have had access to the documents, though he did not specifically allege such visits occurred.

Comer requested the White House deliver the documents no later than January 30.

The letter also expressed concerns that Biden’s staff searched his home for documents after the Justice Department opened a review when other classified records were found in the president’s former office at the Penn Biden Center in November.

Tangent

Both Trump and Biden’s handling of classified records are the subject of DOJ probes, though the cases aren’t equivalent: Over 100 classified documents were found at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home, compared to around 20 reportedly in Biden’s possession, and the DOJ says Trump’s team didn’t comply with a subpoena for the records. When asked on CNN’s State of the Union why the House Oversight Committee wasn’t investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents found at Mar-A-Lago, Comer said it wasn’t necessary given the various other investigations into Trump. “The Democrats have done that for the past six years,” he said.

Key Background

The White House revealed Monday that the president’s personal attorneys found approximately 10 classified documents from the Obama Administration in the president’s former private office at the Penn Biden Center in D.C. in November. The documents reportedly included intelligence memos and briefings regarding Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom. Biden’s team said it notified the National Archives of their discovery and the agency retrieved them the following day. Biden’s personal attorney on Saturday announced five pages of additional classified documents were found in a garage at Biden’s Delaware home earlier in the week, bringing the total to six. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed special counsel Robert Hur to oversee an investigation into the documents. In addition to the House Oversight Committee, the House Judiciary Committee is also investigating the discovery, the latest in a string of investigations into Biden promised by the newly GOP-controlled House.

Contra

Biden has said he had no knowledge of the documents whereabouts or their contents, telling reporters last week, “people know I take classified documents and classified materials seriously” and “we’re cooperating … with the Justice Department’s review.”

Chief Critic

Trump insisted he did “NOTHING wrong” in withholding more than 300 classified documents from the National Archives last year in a series of posts on his Truth Social platform on Sunday that highlighted the ostensible differences between the Biden documents and the records found at Mar-A-Lago. “Mar-a-Lago is a walled fortress, built with ‘unlimited’ money,” Trump wrote, adding that the Biden documents were discovered in “a flimsy garage, with NO SECURITY.” The Justice Department, however, has described the Mar-A-Lago storage area where many of the documents were found was an unsecure location.