How The Government Tracks Classified Documents—And Why It's An Imperfect System
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2023
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
NPR's Greg Myre explains how classified material is handled at the White House, and how that compares to other government agencies.
And we speak to Yale law professor and former special counsel at the Pentagon Oona Hathaway, about the issue of "overclassification" of documents.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | President Biden is getting some unwelcome attention from lawmakers, the media, and even |
| 0:05.6 | his own justice department. |
| 0:07.1 | I'm here today to announce the appointment of Robert Herff as a special counsel, pursuant |
| 0:12.7 | to Department of Justice regulations governing such matters. |
| 0:16.0 | That was Attorney General Merrick Garland speaking last week about the discovery of classified |
| 0:19.9 | documents at President Biden's Delaware home and at a Washington office Biden formerly |
| 0:24.5 | used. |
| 0:25.7 | The Justice Department is, of course, also investigating Biden's predecessor. |
| 0:30.8 | Garland appointed a different special counsel, Jack Smith, to look into former President |
| 0:35.8 | Trump's handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. |
| 0:39.6 | Republicans in the House majority argue that the dual investigations reflect a double |
| 0:44.4 | standard. |
| 0:45.4 | What's real concerning to me is how justice is applied and is it applied equally? |
| 0:50.0 | In light of what had already happened with the raid on former President Trump's home, |
| 0:57.2 | why in the world was it so critical to keep it covered up until now? |
| 1:01.7 | And we just have a lot of questions with respect to how Biden's been treated versus how Donald |
| 1:07.0 | Trump was treated. |
| 1:08.0 | GOP representatives Kevin McCarthy, Darrell, Issa, and James Comer speaking there. |
| 1:13.3 | There are some key differences between the Biden and Trump cases. |
| 1:16.9 | For example, Biden says his lawyers acted quickly to alert the National Archives that classified |
| 1:21.3 | papers had been found while Trump's lawyers clashed with the government in court over |
| 1:25.9 | access to the documents at Mar-a-Lago. |
... |
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