OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Federal authorities have conducted interviews with and obtained testimony from 100 witnesses in an ongoing investigation into President Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, according to a Tuesday report.
ABC News reported that federal officials have primarily focused on former Biden and military aides as well as procedures used when handling the materials. The report said that interviews took place as recently as last week, while some witnesses have been asked to come back in for additional questioning.
The Daily Wire added:
The investigation — which is being led by Special Counsel Robert Hur, a Trump-era U.S. attorney — has “apparently uncovered instances of carelessness from Biden’s vice presidency,” the report said, echoing the type of language that was used in the FBI’s decision to not charge Hillary Clinton over her handling of classified material during the 2016 presidential election.
The report said that the witnesses who have been interviewed have made it seem as though “the improper removal of classified documents from Biden’s office when he left the White House in 2017 was more likely a mistake than a criminal act.”
The report went on to say that Hur has yet to make a determination on the question of whether Biden’s possession of the classified materials was criminal or accidental, though there are no provisions in federal law that make such distinctions.
Antony Blinken, the current secretary of state who was a former aide to Biden, has also been interviewed, ABC News reported.
“Investigators have shown witnesses email chains dating back to at least 2010 and asked for context about those exchanges, sources said. Witnesses have also been pressed about the use of cabinets and safes, sources said,” the outlet reported.
“Sources said investigators are asking witnesses, especially former military aides, granular questions about internal procedures for handling classified materials, apparently seeking to understand the minutiae of how the vice president obtained, consumed, and discarded classified briefing materials,” it added.
Previous reports said that some of the materials federal investigators confiscated during a search of Biden’s home were from his time as a U.S. senator.
“The special counsel investigation into Biden has similarities and differences from the special counsel investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified material,” The Daily Wire noted.
“The biggest difference between the two cases is that when classified material was found at Biden’s office and home, investigators were contacted, the documents were recovered, and Biden appears to have complied with the investigation whereas Trump is accused of obstructing his investigation,” the report added.
There is also another distinction, however. Biden, either as a U.S. senator or vice president, did not possess any authority to declassify any materials; Trump, has president, did have that authority.
Nevertheless, special counsel Jack Smith has charged former President Donald Trump in conjunction with his possession of classified documents.
Recently, Smith filed paperwork with the federal court overseeing his classified documents case admitting his team incorrectly filed paperwork claiming it had turned over all evidence, as the law requires.
Prosecutors discovered that video used as evidence “had not been processed and uploaded to the platform established for the defense to view” when they were getting ready to indict Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira last week for allegedly conspiring with Trump to delete surveillance footage from the estate, Smith’s team wrote in a filing.
“The Government’s representation at the July 18 hearing that all surveillance footage the Government had obtained pre-indictment had been produced was therefore incorrect,” the prosecutors added.
“All CCTV footage obtained by the government has now been given to the defendants, according to Smith’s team. The so-called Brady rule requires prosecutors to disclose all evidence and information favorable to the defendant,” Just The News reported.
