What we know about the Biden documents
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What we know about the classified documents found in President Biden’s possession. How will a new special counsel investigation by the Justice Department work? And what are the similarities — and differences — with the investigation into former president Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents?
Read more:
Amid new revelations of classified documents in his possession after the vice presidency, President Biden now faces a special counsel investigation.
In November, a small batch of classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in downtown Washington, according to a CBS News report this week. The Post reported that the discovery involved about 10 classified documents.
In a statement Thursday, Biden’s legal team said more classified documents were found — this time, in the locked garage of his Wilmington, Del., residence.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert K. Hur, a former U.S. attorney, to handle the special counsel investigation. This comes as former president Donald Trump is also being investigated by a special counsel for retention of classified documents at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.
Today on the show, White House reporter Matt Viser breaks down what this could mean for the Biden presidency and how this could impact his potential run against Trump in 2024.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It feels like we've heard this one before, a president under investigation by the Department |
| 0:08.4 | of Justice for taking some classified documents with them when they left office. |
| 0:13.4 | And this time, it's President Biden. |
| 0:16.4 | He has really been consumed this week with sort of a dribbling out of information about |
| 0:22.4 | a set of classified documents from his years as vice president that ended up in a couple |
| 0:27.6 | different locations. |
| 0:29.6 | What is Matt Beiser? |
| 0:30.8 | He reports on the White House for the post. |
| 0:33.2 | Last year, classified documents were discovered at former President Trump's residence in Mar-a-Lago. |
| 0:38.5 | It prompted an investigation by the Justice Department that is still ongoing. |
| 0:43.4 | And now, it's happening again. |
| 0:47.7 | On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that he's appointing a special council |
| 0:52.9 | to find out how classified documents ended up in Biden's possession. |
| 0:57.2 | And how big of a deal is this? |
| 1:00.3 | It's a little early to tell how much legal problems there may be. |
| 1:07.1 | But from a political perspective, it's a pretty big problem coming at a pretty difficult |
| 1:13.2 | time for Biden. |
| 1:14.3 | He had been on an extraordinarily good run. |
| 1:18.3 | Perhaps one of the best since he became president is going to take a lot of oxygen out of Washington |
| 1:24.9 | and sort of the things that Biden wants to talk about and force his White House to respond |
| 1:29.3 | to questions, respond to an investigation now, and respond to congressional inquiries. |
| 1:34.2 | And it makes it harder, I think, for him to fully go after Trump for his own, while different, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.