The
White House
has been tight-lipped about the documents scandal the public learned about last week, especially since
special counsel Robert Hur
was appointed to investigate the matter on Jan. 12.
Since that date, the
Biden administration
has refused to substantively answer
almost any questions
related to the classified documents which were found at the Penn Biden Center and President
Joe Biden
‘s Delaware home. But legal experts say the mere existence of an investigation does not, and should not, prevent the White House from being transparent about what’s going on.
DOCUMENTS SCANDAL RAISES TRANSPARENCY QUESTIONS AT BIDEN’S RESIDENCE, THINK TANK
“First of all, I can’t talk about this, right? Because the Department of Justice is reviewing it,” White House press secretary
Karine Jean-Pierre
said the day the counsel was named. “There is a review happening. … You know this. We just heard from the Attorney General. There is a review. I am limited in what I can say to this.”
While administration officials are not obligated to speak or disclose information, they are not legally barred from doing so either, according to experts interviewed for this story.
“There is no legal reason why they can’t talk,” said Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz.
Jean-Pierre has cited the investigation repeatedly since the scandal broke in refusing to answer questions about the controversy, such as whether all the documents were now accounted for, when Biden will take questions about the matter, or whether the president himself searched through documents at his home.
Some of the information she has provided has also proven suspect.
The press secretary said six times last Thursday that the search was complete, but it was later announced that additional documents were found in Biden’s home that night. That led to several pointed questions this week, with one reporter shouting, “You told us something six times that turned out to be false. Are you sorry about that?”
Not all interviewees were as assured as Dershowitz. Walter Shaub of the Project On Government Oversight said it’s understandable the
White House
won’t talk about the documents themselves, given that they are classified. But he agrees administration officials are not limited in speaking due to an investigation.
“They could have been a lot more forthcoming than they were, and I think the public deserved to know about it sooner,” he said. “It’s true that Trump’s intentional refusal to return classified records to the government is incomparably worse than Biden’s prompt return of documents in his possession, but the administration has done just a terrible job of communicating with the public about this mess.”
Shaub argues that the White House can be forthright with the public while also respecting the Justice Department’s independence.
The first batch of documents was found at the Penn Biden Center think tank on Nov. 2, days before the midterm elections, but the public didn’t learn of the discovery until two months later. Administration officials insist they have been transparent in spite of this and other information gaps.
In the absence of solid information, members of Congress from both parties have begun looking into the matter.
House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep.
Jim Jordan
(R-OH) and Oversight Committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) have
launched an investigation
into the Justice Department’s handling of the documents scandal, and even some Democrats have said they
want to get answers
about what’s going on.
Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007, said the investigation might prevent the White House from speaking about how the documents got where they were and who packed up the boxes, but that everything else is fair game.
“Why [the documents] were there for so long, who had access to them, all of that stuff jeopardized our national security, so they have an obligation to answer all of those questions,” said Painter, now a University of Minnesota law professor. “They are avoiding any and all questions right now, and that is not acceptable.”
Jean-Pierre’s continued mentions of the investigation to avoid answering questions draws parallels with her
frequent references
to
the Hatch Act
, which Dershowitz previously told the Washington Examiner is being overused by the administration.
It’s unclear how long the DOJ investigation will last, though it could be a matter of months.
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In the meantime, reporters continue hammering the White House for information and questioning why the administration is being so coy.
“To be clear,” Jean-Pierre said Thursday, “I’m just not going to address something that is even related to an ongoing legal process.”
