WASHINGTON, D.C. – Investigators found more classified documents in President Biden’s Delaware home over the weekend. This is the latest in a series of discoveries that has already led the DOJ to create a special counsel to investigate.
According to his attorney, all of the documents were from his time as Vice President and some as his time as a US Senator. Biden who has mostly kept quiet on this, maintains it would eventually be revealed that he did nothing wrong.
“As we found, we found a handful of documents were failed, were filed in the wrong place,” said Biden. “We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department.”
How is classified information supposed to be handled? We took a look at the current executive order which was issued by former President Barack Obama for guidance.
The order clarifies the level of classification ranging from top secret, secret and confidential. Items like military plans, info on foreign governments, even nuclear materials and more can be subject to classification. The president, vice president and others like agency heads can classify information.
Who can see classified info? The president and a few others who have special authorities to view classified info while in or out of office. Former presidents and vice presidents and others also have access to all and any classified information in perpetuity by the nature of the position they held. However, the order says no one, including the president, can remove classified information from official premises without proper authorization.
How does classified information need to be stored? The executive order says there are directives about storage, safeguarding and accounting for classified information but the executive order doesn’t elaborate as to what that looks like.
There are some consequences for those who don’t follow these rules. The executive order says officials can be admonished, lose their security clearances and be fired. Congress also has their own separate criminal penalties on this.
