In the aftermath of reports that stashes of classified documents had been discovered in President Joe Biden’s former office and his Delaware home, some Republicans began pressing for visitor logs in an effort to determine who might have had access to the sensitive government materials.
Citing concerns about Chinese donations to the University of Pennsylvania, which operates the Penn Biden Center in D.C. where some of the classified documents were found, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) sent the university’s president a request for a list of people who met with Biden at the think tank.
“President Biden’s pattern of mishandling classified documents is alarming,” he wrote. “The Committee is concerned about who had access to these documents given the Biden family’s financial connections to foreign actors and companies. The Committee requests documents and information related to foreign influence at UPenn and the Penn Biden Center.”
House Republicans also requested a visitor log pertaining to Biden’s private residence, but it was shot down by the Secret Service and a source within the White House counsel’s office, who asserted: “Consistent with past precedent of every President across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal.”
That explanation seemed sufficient for Biden’s Democratic supporters and media allies at the time — but now one lawmaker is demanding visitor logs for the private residences of former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, both of whom have also reportedly been in possession of classified documents.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle requesting the information on behalf of the panel.
New: Jamie Raskin, the top Dem on Oversight, is calling on the Secret Service to release visitor information from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and Pence’s Carmel, Ind., home “to assist the Committee in investigating the mishandling of classified information.”
— Max Cohen (@maxpcohen) January 31, 2023
“Given that the U.S. Secret Service provided protection for Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence during the time they stored classified materials at their respective residences, the Committee is seeking information from your agency regarding who had access to former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and former Vice President Pence’s personal residence since leaving office,” he wrote.
Despite previous assertions that such residences are intended to be treated as private, Raskin nonetheless set a deadline two weeks from the date of the letter to release any documents regarding visitors to Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida and Pence’s home in Carmel, Indiana.
