(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – President Joe Biden has broken the law, particularly the Espionage Act, by keeping classified documents from his time as vice president, Republican US Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida declared.
“To be blunt, I really don’t know where we go from here. We said from the beginning a former vice president or anybody else has no ability to remove classified documents,” the GOP lawmaker told Newsmax in an interview.
Stashes of classified US government papers totaling about two dozen documents have been found at Biden’s former office in Washington, DC, and in his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
Donalds noted that if the papers in question were moved before Biden was sworn in as president, that meant violating the Espionage Act regardless of intent.
The Florida Republican pointed out that the case in which former President Donald Trump was accused of mishandling classified papers was “different” because the president had the power to classify and declassify information.
“We know former presidents take documents. The National Archives know they take documents, and that’s something that’s consistently occurred, no matter who the occupant of the White House was,” Donalds stated.
At the same time, he argued that the situation with Biden allegedly taking classified papers before becoming president was “very different.”
“This is more akin to Hillary Clinton, where there are violations of the Espionage Act because they have removed classified information from secure facilities,” he said
“The intent is irrelevant. What you’ve done with it is irrelevant,” Donalds added.
He compared the situation of a person who was “not a politician at a high level” and removed classified information from a secure facility to that of a member of the US military doing so.
“The American people need to understand it’s not about just what was by the tailpipe next to [Biden’s] Corvette,” said Donalds, insisting it was about the time when the documents were taken.
“Any document he removed before he took the oath of office to become president of the United States is a violation of the Espionage Act,” the Republican legislator added.
The report points out that Biden’s Justice Department used the Espionage Act on the warrant justifying the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s home in Florida on August 8, 2022.
The warrant cited Section 793 of the anti-spying law, dealing with the “gathering, transmitting, or losing of national defense information,” according to the National Constitution Center.
The classified papers taken by Biden were reported and handed over by his lawyers and aids. The only FBI search of the Democrat president’s home took place last Friday but did not use a warrant as Biden himself voluntarily allowed it.
"Any document [Biden] removed before he took the oath of office to become president of the United States is a violation of the Espionage Act," Rep. Byron Donalds argues. https://t.co/2grT2S8FMd
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) January 22, 2023
