The National Archives was blocked from informing the public about the initial discovery of classified documents at President Biden’s former DC think tank by either the White House or the Department of Justice, The Post has learned.
The shocking revelation, confirmed by a source familiar with the matter, has led to allegations of a double standard in how the National Archives and Records Administration and the Justice Department are prosecuting the investigations of Biden and of former President Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling America’s secrets.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) revealed on Tuesday that Archives general counsel Gary Stern, in a closed-door interview, said he could not tell lawmakers who had ordered the Archives to keep quiet and not put out a press release announcing the Nov. 2 find at the Penn Biden Center.
“There are only two people that could have given those orders, and that’s either the Department of Justice with [Attorney General] Merrick Garland or the White House with Joe Biden,” Comer told Fox News’ “Hannity.”
“So it shows right there that this Department of Justice and this White House is interfering with this,” he added.
FBI agents searched Biden’s former office in mid-November, days after his attorneys found classified records improperly stored there less than a week before the midterm elections.
The feds’ search of the Penn Biden Center, which was reported by multiple outlets Tuesday and confirmed by the administration Wednesday, was not previously disclosed by the White House, the Justice Department or the president’s personal attorneys.
Despite the silence, Ian Sams, the White House spokesman fielding inquiries on the ongoing scandal, unashamedly told reporters on the White House driveway: “I think we’ve been pretty transparent from the very beginning with providing information as it occurs throughout this process.”
Moments later, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by Associated Press reporter Seung Min Kim “how the White House can claim that they are being transparent when the FBI search of the Penn Biden Center that happened months ago was not proactively disclosed to the public”.
“I’m just not going to comment on anything that is related to what is currently happening,” Jean-Pierre responded, later adding: “Anything that is specific to this particular process, I would refer you to the Department of Justice, and also my colleagues at the White House counsel’s office.”
It’s unclear whether agents found any additional classified material after Biden’s lawyers reportedly found around 10 sensitive documents — some marked “top secret” — at the abandoned Penn Biden Center office near the US Capitol.
The discovery of the classified documents at the Penn Biden Center was revealed in a report by CBS News on Jan. 9.
After the story broke, NARA drafted a press statement about the documents, a source familiar with the matter told The Post, but the statement was suppressed at the request of someone from either the White House or DOJ.
NARA also confirmed that it has communications and documents requested by Comer on Jan. 10 about the Penn Biden Center — but so far, it has not produced any of those materials, the person said.
In a Wednesday statement, Comer blasted the White House and Justice Department, saying they “continue to conceal information from Congress and the American people.”
In the interview with Stern, Comer said, NARA “admitted the Biden Administration prohibited them from releasing a public statement on the Penn-Biden Center classified documents and limited NARA’s ability to testify about all facts related to President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.”
“The ongoing secrecy of President Biden’s classified material is unacceptable and Oversight Republicans will continue to demand transparency for the American people,” he added.
NARA’s relative public silence about Biden’s classified documents is in stark contrast to the publicity the agency gave the discovery of sensitive files at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate this past August.
“If you go on the National Archives website, there’s pages and pages of press releases and information about the FBI raid into Mar-a-Lago and Donald Trump’s possession of classified documents,” Comer said.
“But there’s nothing on the website about Joe Biden,” he told “Hannity.”
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“Nothing that Joe Biden’s done with respect to mishandling these classified documents is normal. Take into consideration that he’s also being investigated for influence-peddling with our adversaries around the world, and it’s even more concerning,” Comer went on.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley agreed, telling The Post: “The National Archives has a distinctly different record in dealing with the Biden documents than it did the Trump documents.”
“With regard to Trump, the Archives was highly active in public comments, including rapid responses to arguments made by the Trump team,” Turley continued. “With Biden, it has been conspicuously silent.”
Addressing the scrapping of the Archives statement about the initial Penn Biden Center find, Turley said: “It would be highly irregular for the White House to have conveyed such instructions. If it was the Justice Department, it was in stark contrast to the role of the Archives during the Trump investigation.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Sams told reporters when asked about the scrapped Archives announcement. “If that’s actually what he [Comer] said, it’s probably better to ask the Archives … and try to understand a little bit more with that.”
“The National Archives has no comment,” the agency said in response to a request from The Post, while Jean-Pierre referred another question about Comer’s claim during her briefing Wednesday to the White House counsel’s office, fronted by Sams.
Comer added Tuesday that the investigation into the classified documents at Biden’s Delaware home and DC office has added urgency since first son Hunter Biden had access to the Wilmington house while pursuing shady foreign business deals — and while struggling with a crack cocaine addiction.
“Look, more information comes out every day where [Joe Biden’s] son, especially, as well as his two brothers, have had shady business dealings with our adversaries around the world,” he told “Hannity.”
“And part of what they would do when they would make a pitch to these shady characters in these foreign countries is prove to them that they actually had direct access to their brother and that they had direct access to people at the highest levels of our federal government.”
“So when we learned that Joe Biden had classified documents from all over the place and that Hunter Biden especially lived in his house where he had those classified documents, we became extra concerned, and that’s why this investigation is of the utmost importance for the United States Congress as well as the American people,” Comer added.
Hunter Biden, who is under federal investigation for possible tax fraud, money laundering and illegal foreign lobbying, frequently visited the Wilmington document repository, according to records from his former laptop, and even listed the home as his own residence on a 2018 background check form.
