The State Department Thursday followed the White House’s lead by dodging questions about the discovery of classified documents at one of President Biden’s former offices in Washington and in his personal garage.
Some of the documents were found at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., where Biden had an office before he ran for president. Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, was a managing director of that office. On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate how the documents were handled.
Thursday afternoon, reporters asked several questions about whether the Justice Department is looking into any possible connection between Blinken and the documents.
But State Department spokesman Ned Price dodged the questions, including those about whether the Justice Department has contacted the State Department as part of its investigation.
AG GARLAND APPOINTS SPECIAL COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE BIDEN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS
The State Department, led by Secretary Antony Blinken, had no comment Thursday on his possible connection to the classified documents found in a former office at the Penn Biden Center, where Biden and Blinken worked.
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“There’s not going to be much that I can say on a case like this for reasons that you well understand. You heard the president speak to this earlier in the week from Mexico City,” Price said. “Just as you heard from the president, the secretary [Blinken] was surprised to learn that there were any government records taken to that office. As you know, as is now well known, there is a review of this matter, so we’re going to let that review play out.”
When asked when Blinken first learned that classified documents were being kept at the Penn Biden Center, Price dodged again.
“I’m just not going to offer any additional detail,” he said. “Just as the president was, [Blinken] was surprised to learn that there were any government records taken to that…
