Group's focus on classified docs during presidential transitions
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday launched a task force aimed at addressing the “systemic” problem of mishandling classified information during presidential transitions, days after a Justice Department special counsel’s sharply critical report said he had done just that.
The Presidential Records Transition Task Force will study past transitions to determine best practices for safeguarding classified information from an outgoing administration, the White House said. It will also assess the need for changes to existing policies and procedures to prevent the removal of sensitive information that by law should be kept with the National Archives and Records Administration.
The report from special counsel Robert Hur listed dozens of sensitive docu- ments found at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at his former Washing- ton office. The papers were marked as classified or later assessed to contain classified information.
The majority of the docu- ments, Hur’s report stated, appeared to have been mis- takenly removed from gov- ernment offices, though he also detailed some items that Biden appeared to know- ingly retain. He concluded that criminal charges were not warranted in the matter..
“I take responsibility for not having seen exactly what my staff was doing,” Biden said last week after Hur’s report was released. He added that “things that appeared in my garage, things that came out of my home, things that were moved were moved not by me but my staff.”
Biden aides first discovered some of the documents as they cleared out the offices of the Penn-Biden Center in Washington in 2022, and more were discovered during subsequent searches by Biden’s lawyers and the FBI.
Biden promptly reported the discoveries to federal authorities, which prompted the special counsel probe. That’s unlike former Presi- dent Donald Trump, who is accused of resisting efforts to return classified government records that he moved to his Florida residence before leaving office in 2021 and of obstructing the investigation into them in a separate spe- cial counsel investigation.
In even the best of cir- cumstances, presiden- tial transitions can be cha- otic as records of the out- going administration are transferred to the National Archives and thousands of political appointees leave their jobs to make way for the incoming administration. Officials of multiple administrations have said there is a systemic problem with mis- handling of classified infor- mation by senior govern- ment officials, particularly around transitions, magnified by rampant over-classifica- tion across the government.
Former Vice President Mike Pence turned over some classified documents discov- ered at his home last year. And former officials from all levels of government dis- cover they are in possession of classified material and turn them over to the authorities at least several times a year.
“Previous presidential transitions, across admin- istrations stretching back decades, have fallen short in ensuring that classified pres- idential records are prop- erly archived at NARA,” the White House said. “In light of the many instances that have come to light in recent years revealing the extent of this systemic issue, Pres- ident Biden is taking action to strengthen how adminis- trations safeguard classified documents during presiden- tial transitions and to help address this longstanding problem going forward.”
Hur’s report said many of the documents recovered at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, in parts of Biden’s Delaware home and in his Senate papers at the University of Delaware were retained by “mistake.”
Biden could not have been prosecuted as a sitting president, but Hur’s report states that he would not recommend charges against Biden regardless. But investigators did find evidence of willful retention and disclosure of a subset of records found in Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware house, including in a garage, office and basement den. The files pertain to a troop surge in Afghanistan during the Obama administration that Biden had vigorously opposed. He kept records that documented his position, including a classified letter to Obama during the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday.
Biden also retained his personal notebooks after leaving the vice presidency, some of which investigators found contained classified information, though other officials have kept similar documents as their personal property.
The task force will be headed by Katy Kale, deputy administrator of the General Services Administration, who was assistant to the president for management and administration during the Obama administration, the post that oversees the human resources and document retention functions at the White House.
The panel will include representatives from the White House, General Services Administration, NARA, the National Security Council and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.