"Garage-Gate" Comes to the Senate?
I know how the Senate's classified documents are handled. Biden has them in his possession from his Senate service? Where is the Democrat's Howard Baker?
One of the 19 (now 24) offices I was responsible for as Secretary of the Senate almost 30 years ago was the Office of Senate Security. From the Senate’s website:
The Office of Senate Security is responsible for the administration of classified national security information and personnel, communications, and computer security programs to protect classified information in Senate offices and committees. It serves as the Senate's liaison to the executive branch in matters relating to the secure transmittal and distribution of classified national security information.
I’ve known that for a long time. Then a friend emailed me over the weekend about reports concerning classified documents being found at President Biden’s residence that date to his Senate days (1973-2007).
Then there is this terrific post from a former federal prosecutor and author Andrew C. McCarthy (southern district, NY) at National Review:
To try to stave off this chain of political disasters, Biden has decided to pose as a dedicated public servant who cooperates unfailingly with law enforcement because he has nothing to hide. Don’t fall for it. Team Biden has been playing games for two months. And clearly the president not only has things to hide; he has been hiding some of them for over 15 years—a portion of the classified documents seized Friday trace to Biden’s time in the Senate (1973–2009), even though senators are only permitted to review classified documents in secure facilities at the Capitol or at intelligence agencies, not take them home. (Emphasis added)
What McCarthy says is correct. Senators may enter a Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility (SCIF) for a briefing. When I was Senate Secretary, there was just one SCIF on the US Capitol’s fourth floor (some call it the attic). With the new Capitol Visitors Center, others have been added. From a non-government website, architectofthecapital.org:
There are numerous SCIFs on Capitol Hill for the congressional committees that oversee the military and intelligence community. Before 9/11 many of these meetings took place in an out of the way office on the attic level of the Capitol. The Capitol Visitor Center, completed in 2008, added larger underground SCIFs for both the House and Senate.
Still, they check (leave behind) their phones and other electronic devices before entering the room. They log in to review classified documents and may not leave with any. Period.
Even taking notes is verboten. Those are confiscated.
When the Senate meets in session, where classified information is shared, they gather in the Old Senate Chamber (1810-1959), an interior room with no electronic devices.
This document scandal reeks. It provides fodder for House (we can safely presume that the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Mark Warner [D-VA], will do nothing to investigate this breach, although he should). How did documents with classified markings from Biden’s Senate service wind up in his residence? When did he receive them, how have they been handled, who has had access to them, and how did they wind up in Wilmington? Then there’s what's in the documents themselves. It could be nothing. Then again, it could have resulted in the death of a source or disclosure of methods.
We. Do. Not. Know.
Of course, one reason for these investigations may be for the Biden Administration’s Justice Department to keep control over documents they don’t want to provide to Congress, citing the special counsel and ongoing investigation as their reason. Except when it’s convenient to do otherwise - selectively, of course (see photo above).
Is it possible that these documents were dated from his Senate service but obtained during his Vice Presidential service? If so, why? And if obtained and removed while a Senator, how? I hope Biden didn’t take off with classified documents as Senator on my watch. Did intelligence agencies or officials give them to him surreptitiously? The questions are endless. And they are very important.
This is no longer just an “accident,” as the hapless and incompetent White House press secretary, diversity hire, and muppet Karin Jean Pierre has suggested.
New land speed records for hypocrisy have been achieved by what is increasingly apparent is our nation’s most corrupt president. I don’t say that lightly. But combined with what we know from Hunter Biden’s now-authenticated laptop, his former business partner Tony Bobulinksi and investigative reporting from Peter Schweizer, the evidence is overpowering, if not conclusive.
As Secretary, given my responsibilities, I held among the highest security clearances, both FBI and CIA. Had I mishandled classified information, I would have gone to jail. In the executive branch, you're fired if you carelessly leave a classified document on your desk. If you take it home, you’re prosecuted. And if you share it, you’re headed to jail.
While classified documents in the executive branch (in which I also served briefly) are handled differently, the Senate does a better job of protecting such documents from irresponsible handling than current or former Presidents. When past Senators have been admonished for releasing classified material, it’s usually because they showed indiscretion through public statements (see: former US Sen. “Leaky” Pat Leahy, 1986, who was removed from his role as Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee).
That documents dated to Biden’s Senate service have appeared in his possession is alarming to me as a former Senate official. That he was so cavalier in his handling of classified documents when he was departing as Vice President (don’t give me any malarky about President Obama delegating him declassification authority) while hypocritically complaining about Trump’s controversial handling of documents should be a wake-up call to this man’s sheer incompetence, corruption, or likely both.
Allow me to introduce you to federal law about the unauthorized removal and retention of classified information, 18 USC 1924:
(a)Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.
(b)For purposes of this section, the provision of documents and materials to the Congress shall not constitute an offense under subsection (a).
(c)In this section, the term “classified information of the United States” means information originated, owned, or possessed by the United States Government concerning the national defense or foreign relations of the United States that has been determined pursuant to law or Executive order to require protection against unauthorized disclosure in the interests of national security.
Fortunately, we have two special counsels investigating how former President Donald Trump handled classified documents upon his departure from office (note: as President, he had sole and ultimate authority for declassification of documents, but no other officials do, including Vice Presidents). Hopefully, both are professional, non-partisan investigators who will get to the bottom.
And that’s not all. Acquaint yourself with 19 USC 798:
(a)Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information—
(1)concerning the nature, preparation, or use of any code, cipher, or cryptographic system of the United States or any foreign government; or
(2)concerning the design, construction, use, maintenance, or repair of any device, apparatus, or appliance used or prepared or planned for use by the United States or any foreign government for cryptographic or communication intelligence purposes; or
(3)concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government; or
(4)obtained by the processes of communication intelligence from the communications of any foreign government, knowing the same to have been obtained by such processes—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
There is so much fishy information about Biden’s handling of classified information, his Chinese and Ukrainian-paid and drug-addled son residing at the Biden Wilmington residence with classified documents readily available for him to peruse next to Biden’s 1967 Corvette and elsewhere.
Perhaps this is all sheer incompetence from a former Senator never known for being the brightest bulb in the lamp post. Perhaps the old saying is true that we should never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence. But the more we learn, this looks increasingly like a foreign influence peddling and money laundering operation. It is fair to ask and investigate whether President Biden is a national security risk who has been compromised and how deep this goes.
In case you think it’s just crazy for me to raise these concerns, this is from the website of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, chaired by US Rep. James Comer (R-KY):
Committee Republicans have uncovered evidence of federal crimes committed by—and to the benefit of—members of the President’s family. These include:
Conspiracy or defrauding the United States
Wire fraud
Conspiracy to commit wire fraud
Violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act
Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act
Tax evasion
Money laundering; and
Conspiracy to commit money laundering
The Biden family’s business dealings implicate a wide range of criminality from human trafficking to potential violations of the Constitution.
And yet everything we know about “Garage-Gate” and Biden’s mishandling of classified information comes from his lawyers. I increasingly believe that Biden was forced to hire expensive lawyers to peruse his stored documents due to a Grand Jury subpoena (one has been impaneled over Hunter’s laptop scandal). There is so much we do not know.
I don’t know whether US House investigators will have access or the wherewithal to get to the truth. Too bad the major media seems largely uninterested, outside of the New York Post’s Miranda Devine (who broke the original Biden laptop story), law professor and blogger Jonathan Turley, and others. Perhaps citizen journalism will continue its ascent through Twitter and other genuinely free outlets (free of fealty to surreptitious leakers inside the FBI and intelligence agencies, at least). Maybe public-spirited whistleblowers inside the FBI and our intelligence agencies will step forward. Some reportedly have.
While others focus on evidence of unfair treatment over classified document handling between Trump and Biden (and Hillary Clinton), that pales in comparison to the potential for massive breaches and criminal violations, we are wading in possible impeachment waters here, much more severe than the largely discredited Trump impeachments and possibly even Watergate. Some suggest a conspiracy to undermine a potential Biden reelection bid for 2024.
Where is the Democrat’s Howard Baker?
Baker was the ranking Republican on the Senate’s Select Watergate Committee in 1973 that investigated the Nixon Administration scandal. Baker, a Republican from Tennessee who would later become Majority Leader and White House Chief of Staff, could have stonewalled the investigation. He chose the country over his party, the truth over partisanship.
Now would be the time if we needed a genuinely bipartisan congressional investigation into this growing scandal. It would certainly inspire trust by Americans of all stripes that an honest quest for truth was seriously underway with confidence in the outcome, whether anyone is prosecuted (or impeached) or not.
Sadly, too many on both sides seek partisan advantage over the national interest. And the Biden Administration, even with the appointment of a special counsel, cannot be trusted with any aspect of this investigation. I fully expect them to stonewall Congress. They’re already stonewalling the media and, by extension, us.
Now is the time for the Democrat’s Howard Baker to step forward.