Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Saturday said she’s “glad” a special prosecutor has been appointed to investigate classified Obama-era documents found in now-President Biden’s possession after his tenure as vice president.
“I’m glad that there is a special prosecutor that’s been appointed to investigate this … because any time there is a deviance in regard to security protocols, that should be taken serious, it should be investigated,” Omar told MSNBC’s Symone Sanders-Townsend.
“What I find interesting is that Republicans who have defended [former President] Trump after he literally stole classified documents, refused to turn them over, lied about having them, made up some story about how he declassified them, had to have his house raided in order for those documents to be found, are now only interested in investigating Biden, who has cooperated, whose own staff and former staff have themselves turned these documents in,” Omar said.
Around two dozen documents from Biden’s White House stint as vice president have been discovered in recent weeks at an old Washington, D.C., office and at his Wilmington, Del., home.
Many on the right seized on the document discovery, pointing to the treatment of Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago residence was searched by the FBI last summer. Authorities uncovered more than a hundred classified documents at the time.
But Omar and others have countered that Biden’s team notified the National Archives and turned over the documents upon finding them, while Trump apparently kept classified materials even after requests from the archives to return them.
“You have to understand, Republicans aren’t really interested in upholding the law, in following security protocols. What they’re interested in is playing a political game in now only wanting to investigate Biden,” Omar said.
All presidential and vice presidential records must be turned over to the National Archives at the end of an administration for preservation and safekeeping, according to the Presidential Records Act.
Attorney General Merrick Garland last week appointed a special counsel to investigate the discovery of classified documents, as was done after documents were uncovered at Mar-a-Lago.