The “discovery” that Joe Biden had multiple stashes of highly classified documents begs a few salient questions that nobody, to the best of my knowledge, has answered — When were they discovered? Who discovered them? And why is this information being leaked now?
It was not the White House coming forward with a mea culpa. Some person or persons in the Deep State let this Top Secret Cat out of the bag. Is it possible that they were discovered well before the raid on Trump in August? Was the Trump raid laying a predicate of sorts to provide damage control when the Biden collection was exposed? Maybe.
But there is a huge difference between Trump’s documents and Biden’s. Trump had ultimate authority as President to classify and declassify documents. Even though a document might bear a TS marking, if Trump declassified it then it was no longer classified. Biden had ZERO authority to declassify. Zilch. Nada.
There is another important difference — Trump’s collection of formerly classified material was taken to one location and personnel with the National Archives were notified. Trump’s documents were locked up in a secure room. They were not parked next to a 1967 Corvette or stuffed into a closet paid for by the Chinese. Biden’s documents were in multiple locations.
I was privileged to hold TS SCI clearances. I had TK, UMBRA and GAMMA, just to mention a few. That means I had access to the raw material produced by CIA, NSA, State, DIA, DOD, NIMA and NRO. I also had access to finished intelligence, i.e. a product produced by analysts using the raw material. I am willing to wager that Biden did not have any TS or S raw intelligence. That stuff is not very useful by itself.
I believe that Trump’s formerly classified material included evidence of CIA and FBI activities to sabotage his Presidency. For example, copies of CIA message traffic between Headquarters and the CIA Chief of Station in London (i.e., Gina Haspel) asking the Brits to conduct collection on members of the Trump team or reports on such collection. That material is kryptonite for the Deep State.
What might Biden have squirreled away? How about reports created at Biden’s request on potential business partners in Ukraine, China or Khazastan? That would be interesting. It also is likely that different members of the intelligence community produced finished products that could be used to identify and cash in on business opportunities.
Ron Klain, Biden’s current Chief of Staff, was Biden’s Chief of Staff as Vice President and was in charge of the paper flow that went in and out of Biden’s office. He is a central figure in this. TS material is not scattered on a desktop littered with unclassified documents. It is kept separate (it is supposed to be kept separate and controlled and locked in special safes). So this is not a case of some careless packing mistake. The limited number of classified documents that DOJ has scooped up reflects a deliberate, conscious effort to abscond with sensitive material.
The timing and nature of this leak (i.e., that Biden took TS SCI documents) could indicate the first moves of worried Deep Staters to make a confused, demented old man a scapegoat and shuttle him to the exit. If (or when) Ukraine surrenders to Russia, this will be the second major military setback of the Biden Presidency. With Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, Biden’s team will not be able to bury damaging revelations that will emerge from various investigations that Speaker McCarthy has green-lit. And do not forget the dozens of FBI whistleblowers that have gone to Republicans and provided them with damning ammunition. If the FBI and CIA come to believe their very existence is at risk, do not be surprised if Joe Biden becomes the ritual sacrifice and is jettisoned from office.