By Colleen Long and Zeke Miller
WASHINGTON — The National Archives has asked former U.S. presidents and vice presidents to recheck their private information for any classified documents following the information that President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence had such documents of their possession, two folks aware of the matter stated Thursday.
The Archives despatched a letter Thursday to representatives of former presidents and vice presidents extending again to Ronald Reagan to guarantee compliance with the Presidential Records Act. The act states that any information created or obtained by the president are the property of the U.S. authorities and can be managed by the archives on the finish of the administration, in accordance to the 2 folks, who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to discuss investigations.
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The Archives despatched the letter to representatives of former Presidents Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, and former Vice Presidents Pence, Biden, Dick Cheney, Al Gore and Dan Quayle.
The letter was first reported by CNN.
Spokespeople for former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and former vice presidents Mike Pence, Dick Cheney, Al Gore and Dan Quayle didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Biden’s attorneys got here throughout classified documents from his time as vp in a locked cupboard as they had been packing up an workplace he not makes use of in November. Since then, subsequent searches by the FBI and Biden’s attorneys have turned up extra documents. Former Vice President Mike Pence, too, this week, found documents and turned them in after saying beforehand he didn’t consider he had any.
The White House didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark however the searches by Biden’s attorneys and the FBI seem to fulfill the Archives’ request.
Handling of classified documents has been an issue on and off for a long time, from presidents to Cabinet members and employees throughout a number of administrations stretching way back to Jimmy Carter. But the problem has taken on better significance since former President Donald Trump willfully retained classified materials at his Florida property, prompting the unprecedented FBI seizure of 1000’s of pages of information final 12 months.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a particular counsel to examine Trump’s dealing with of the documents, and likewise Biden’s.
Speaking Thursday at an unrelated information convention, FBI Director Christopher Wray stated that although he couldn’t talk about any particular ongoing investigation, “We have had for fairly a lot of years any variety of mishandling investigations. That is sadly a daily a part of our counterintelligence division’s and counterintelligence program’s work.”
He stated there was a necessity for folks to take heed to legal guidelines and guidelines governing the dealing with of classified data. “Those guidelines,” he stated, “are there for a purpose.”
Associated Press Writer Eric Tucker contributed.
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