The editors of the Washington Post chide President Biden for his mishandling of classified documents. Both he and President Trump did the wrong things. Leaving aside the bickering over who was wrong-er, their conclusion is about right:
But none of that lets Mr. Biden off the hook. It is important that authority figures try to follow the rules and own up to their mistakes when they make them. Justice Department guidelines mean that no sitting president will be indicted. But maximum allowable transparency is vital. Mr. Biden needs to ditch the defensiveness. Acknowledging that he has grounds for regret would be a good start.
Eventually, perhaps the Congress will come around to the realization that a process for the change from one administration to the next needs to be codified into law, even amending the Constitution in the process if necessary. We have now had at least two consecutive administrations in which the process was bungled (from Obama to Trump leaving classified documents in Joe Biden’s possession, from Trump to Biden leaving classified documents in Trump’s possession). I suspect that the transition has been bungled much more frequently than that.
Absent that the bickering only serves political actors.
I would wager a good bit of money that if you searched the papers taken home by former senators, congressmen, Presidents and vice presidents would find a goodly number of classified documents. That would largely be because the papers are packed by staffers who arent paying much attention or dont care. Its also because we tend to classify way too much material. The staffer may see that the paper is an agenda for a meeting held in public 8 years ago so of course that should not be classified, but it was at the time. We know that data and info from public sources has been put into memos and then made classified because that info was in it.
I doubt we can very easily address over-classification but it should be fairly easy to have teams that oversee packing documents. Congress can pass that. They should also make it very clear ie make a clear law that says if you are asked to return documents you must and specify the punishment.
Steve
Added to this is the complication that one or more of the documents found by the Justice Dept search were from Biden’s time in the Senate.
My understanding is that Congress has access to classified in a special “reading room†with the appropriate access controls. So it will be interesting to see how this one got into Biden’s personal material, how old it is, and what level of classification it contained. Considering Biden was in the Senate for such a long time, it could be very old.
Beyond formalizing the transition processes, the WH could do a much better job internally by using much less paper, as the rest of government has done. Biden could order a review and such changes at any point and he should do so immediately.
Regarding “overclassification,” that is a distraction and red herring.
To the extent that overclassification is a problem in government, it really has nothing to do with improperly removing classified documents from secure areas. Even if something is overclassified, that doesn’t mean one can just pack it up and take it.
Secondly, we don’t know if any of the Biden documents were even overclassified, to begin with, so at this stage it’s an irrelevant distraction.
I highly suspect that the rules on handling classified material is different for people like the President, VP, SecDef, Chair of the Intel committee and a few others. It almost has to be if you think about it. Would be pretty hard to have a meeting or write up a response including info from a classified document without having it hand at least some of the time and not very easy to always run to a classified room to conduct business or write your response.
Now they have been found at the Pence home. He is cooperating.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64392871
Andy, I don’t think that overclassification is as much of a “red herring” as you do. I think that it breeds numbness WRT classified documents. They become invisible, unimportant. When everything is classified, nothing is classified.
However, steve raises an important point: enforcement. Here are the relevant provisions of Executive Order 13526:
Sec. 5.5. Sanctions. 
(a)   If the Director of the Information Security Oversight Office finds that a violation of this order or its implementing directives has occurred, the Director shall make a report to the head of the agency or to the senior agency official so that corrective steps, if appropriate, may be taken.
(b)   Officers and employees of the United States Government, and its contractors, licensees, certificate holders, and grantees shall be subject to appropriate sanctions if they knowingly, willfully, or negligently:
 
(1)   disclose to unauthorized persons information properly classified under this order or predecessor orders;
(2)   classify or continue the classification of information in violation of this order or any implementing directive;
(3)   create or continue a special access program contrary to the requirements of this order; or
(4)   contravene any other provision of this order or its implementing directives.
(c)   Sanctions may include reprimand, suspension without pay, removal, termination of classification authority, loss or denial of access to classified information, or other sanctions in accordance with applicable law and agency regulation.
(d)   The agency head, senior agency official, or other supervisory official shall, at a minimum, promptly remove the classification authority of any individual who demonstrates reckless disregard or a pattern of error in applying the classification standards of this order.
(e)   The agency head or senior agency official shall:
 
(1)   take appropriate and prompt corrective action when a violation or infraction under paragraph (b) of this section occurs; and
(2)   notify the Director of the Information Security Oversight Office when a violation under paragraph (b)(1), (2), or (3) of this section occurs.
I think that’s pretty obviously inadequate and unenforceable WRT the president and possibly the VP as well. IMO the provisions of the EO need to be codified into law, applied to the Congress and staff as well as those in executive agencies, and routinely enforced. I wouldn’t be surprised if that played hob with government as we know it.
I also think that classifying a document because it is politically embarrassing should be a felony but that’s another subject.
Yeah, I laughed at the Pence news. It just confirms what I’ve been saying all along.
“I highly suspect that the rules on handling classified material is different for people like the President, VP, SecDef, Chair of the Intel committee and a few others. It almost has to be if you think about it.”
No, that is just making excuses.
The President, ultimately, makes the rules. The President doesn’t have to follow them, but should adhere to them as a matter of leadership and has to once they are no longer President.
Everyone else is legally supposed to follow the rules. Handling of classified is not rocket science. There’s simply no excuse for it ending up in your house after you are no longer in office. The fact that no one even knew it was missing is the most obvious demonstration that the problem is lax security standards and no accountability.
If handling classified really is different for those high-level people, then there would be special rules in place to account for that – but there aren’t.
This is, IMO, entirely about a VIP culture where the principals and their staff do not think rules apply to them, do not care much about security, and can’t even be bothered to make sure whoever is packing up their shit is checking to make sure there aren’t documents with “Top Secret” stamped in big red letters on them.
Bing, bing, bing. We have a winner. IMO it should be the opposite. The higher up you are in government the more strictly the rules should be enforced.
I dont know much about the VP residence, but for POTUS you kind of live in your office. I really dont find it beyond the pale that classified materials are taken into the living areas. I wouldn’t be surprised that protocols actually allow for that.
Steve
Steve,
It’s one thing to have work documents in the WH or VP residence, it’s another to take them to your private residence after you leave the government.
Again, it is not difficult to check for this stuff.
Pence? No comments on Pence?
Steve
“Pence? No comments on Pence? ”
What comments are you looking for? My view is that it is not surprising at all and is more evidence for my argument that the White House has a systemic security problem. Right now, there is little information except that documents were found, so there is little to comment on.
I think it’s more like a systemic authority problem. Presidents don’t apply the law to themselves and neither do vice presidents.