A new CNN report detailed how then-Vice President Joe Biden’s last days in office were such a "whirlwind" that his aides’ efforts to properly pack up his office, including securing classified documents, were "muddled and hurried," leading to the classified papers being misplaced.
The CNN report attempted to shed more light on how classified documents ended up at the offices of now-President Biden’s think tank in November, and more recently found in his Delaware residence, reportedly stored next to his corvette in the garage.
The recent revelations have prompted a Department of Justice investigation into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, with Attorney General Merrick Garland appointing special counsel for the case on Thursday.
According to CNN, the documents seemed to be misplaced amid the chaos of the transition from the Obama to Trump presidencies. The report noted, "Partly to wrap up his policy portfolios, partly to tout his accomplishments, and partly to occupy himself following the death of his son a year earlier, Biden thrust himself into work in a final sprint to mark what then appeared to be the end of a four-decade run at the highest levels of government."
With Biden’s office being occupied until the last minute, the piece stated, "Aides scrambled to pack up his workspaces in the West Wing, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and at his official residence, the Naval Observatory."
CNN spoke to some unnamed sources familiar with the last days, one of which admitted, "It was just a really, really weird time for everyone."
The report further described the transition as such: "The looming arrival of Trump to the White House left many of Obama and Biden’s aides wary of the future and eager to cement many of their accomplishments." Sources said it was "an uneasy moment."
It declared, "Those competing objectives – to use his office until the final minutes even as it was obliged to shut down – made for a muddled and hurried process that left aides packing boxes of documents and papers late into the night, even as more material kept arriving."
MORE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS FOUND IN BIDEN'S DELAWARE GARAGE, WHITE HOUSE REVEALS
CNN admitted it is still an "open question" as to how exactly "a small batch of classified documents ended up in boxes of Biden’s personal effects" and that Biden’s lawyers "have refused to say who, precisely, packed and moved the material."
But it noted, "At a minimum, however, the placement of the secret documents alongside ‘personal and political papers’ reveals a records retention process gone awry." Former aides and people familiar with the transition process have insisted that the transition team made a "serious effort to follow the law made difficult by an unusually active final stretch."
As aides scrambled to pack and transfer everything, "Biden met in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and in Switzerland with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He spoke by phone with the prime minister of Iraq two days before leaving office. And earlier in the week he held calls with the president of Kosovo and the prime minister of Japan."
Because of this business, "more classified documents continued to arrive" in Biden’s office until the last minute.
Another source said, "Documents and briefings are always coming in and it didn’t slow down, even when the boxes were being packed."
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The report continued, mentioning how "hectic" the final days of Biden’s vice presidential term were. It mentioned Biden receiving the Medal of Freedom from his boss, President Barack Obama, jetting off to New York for a live appearance on ABC’s "The View" that same day, then traveling to Kyiv, Ukraine, making a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and then returning back home for then-incoming President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The report added, "Behind the scenes, a small contingent of aides to Biden were unpacking boxes and setting up a new house on Chain Bridge Road in McLean, Virginia, just outside Washington." The house "served as an office and a gathering point as Biden’s longtime advisers helped chart his new path" at the time.
