US House speaker says Congress should investigate Biden’s classified documents

Washington:

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Thursday that the US Congress should investigate President Joe Biden’s alleged misuse of sensitive material following the discovery of classified documents at two different locations.

“I think it could go through that committee or the other, but I think Congress will have to look into it,” McCarthy said during a press conference, as quoted by US-based NBC News.

“We don’t think there needs to be a special prosecutor, but I think Congress has a role,” he said.

McCarthy compared Biden’s handling of classified documents to that of former US President Donald Trump. The House speaker said he did not see a difference between the two situations, despite Trump’s months of efforts by investigators to retrieve them.

“From one point of view they knew the documents were there – they actually asked President Trump to put another lock on it, so they were locked,” McCarthy said.

On Monday, US media reported that the president’s personal lawyers discovered 10 classified documents related to Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom in a Biden think-tank office, prompting a federal investigation into the matter.

Several aides to President Joe Biden have been interviewed by his vice presidency in connection with an ongoing review of mishandling of classified government documents by US federal officials, NBC reported on Thursday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The report said that the aides who were asked to be interviewed by federal authorities promptly complied.

According to one source, the report said that the people who shut down Biden’s office at the end of his vice presidency were not aware that there was anything that should not have left the White House.

The report said one of Biden’s former aides who was interviewed by federal officials is Kathy Chung, who now serves as deputy director of protocol for US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Earlier on Thursday, US President Joe Biden confirmed that his lawyers had found a “small number” of classified documents at his home and private library in Wilmington, Delaware.

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