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68 Days of Silence: Why the White House Stayed Mum on Classified Documents
The New York Times via Yahoo ^ | January 20, 2022 | By Michael D. Shear, Peter Baker and Katie Rogers

Posted on 01/20/2023 8:01:27 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

WASHINGTON — The decision by President Joe Biden and his top advisers to keep the discovery of classified documents secret from the public and even most of the White House staff for 68 days was driven by what turned out to be a futile hope that the incident could be quietly disposed of without broader implications for Biden or his presidency.

The handful of advisers who were aware of the initial discovery on Nov. 2 — six days before the midterm elections — gambled that without going public, they could convince the Justice Department that the matter was little more than a minor, good-faith mistake, unlike former President Donald Trump’s hoarding of documents at his Florida estate.

In the short term, at least, the bet seems to have backfired. Biden’s silence while cooperating with investigators did not forestall the appointment of a special counsel, as his aides had hoped, but still resulted in a public uproar once it became clear that the White House had hidden the situation from the public for more than two months.

The discussions on how to deal with the matter, at least at the start, were confined to the husband-and-wife pair of Bob Bauer, the president’s top personal attorney, and Anita Dunn, a White House senior adviser; Mike Donilon, the president’s longtime confidant and speechwriter; Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens; Stuart F. Delery, the White House counsel; and Richard Sauber, a White House lawyer overseeing the response to investigations, according to people familiar with the situation.

But to Biden’s lawyers, the gamble is not over yet. If their strategy ultimately leads to the case being resolved without charges, they reason, then the short-term pain will be worth it — a bet with a lot riding on it.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: biden; bidendocuments; coverup; crime; family; joesgarage
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1 posted on 01/20/2023 8:01:27 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
The handful of advisers who were aware of the initial discovery on Nov. 2

This is another thorough BS line we are being fed. We will eventually learn that they knew MONTHS or more ago about this. There's zero chance that this "accidental discovery" just happened to occur on Nov. 2. That gives them the fictitious plausibility and cover that it was discovered too late to affect the election. The rubes will buy that new BS story.

2 posted on 01/20/2023 8:05:05 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Once you get people to believe that a plural pronoun is singular, they'll believe anything - nicollo)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Took 3 NYT propagandists to write this BS.


3 posted on 01/20/2023 8:05:33 AM PST by gibsonguy
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
I don't believe the Nov 2nd date of the initial discovery was when they were really discovered this cache. Someone called someone when someone discovered the documents....THEN Biden's handlers got hold of the attorneys, got some advice...and hid the whole damn thing because it was so close to the election.

Biden made a mistake in one of his little speeches telling us that his attorneys told him to shut up.

So who really discovered the documents...and how many got tossed??

Where were these boxes supposed to go?? Dumpster??? or one of Biden's houses.

We're not done with this. Biden's cooperating my .....

4 posted on 01/20/2023 8:13:49 AM PST by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

I basically wrote the same thing.


5 posted on 01/20/2023 8:15:05 AM PST by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: gibsonguy

Thinking the same thing!🤣


6 posted on 01/20/2023 8:15:32 AM PST by Eagles6 (Welcome to the Matrix . Orwell's "1984" was a warning, not an instruction manual.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The Biden camp’s reasoning is flawed simply because there is the Trump case taking place alongside it. If Trump is indicted but Biden isn’t, there will be a lot of anger from one side of the political spectrum.
I don’t see how this won’t still be an issue until there is a detailed explanation of how the documents got to the Biden Penn center and Biden’s garage. I don’t see anybody admitting to the public that they did it.
Leaking of the first draft of the Dobbs decision won’t put to rest who did it. There will always be speculation that a Democrat did it so that people will follow Chuck Schumer’s threat that Gorsuch and Kavanaugh will “pay the price.”


7 posted on 01/20/2023 8:17:26 AM PST by convoter2016
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

NYT….go do some investigative stuff and find out who “deep throat” is !


8 posted on 01/20/2023 8:20:20 AM PST by wardamneagle
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To: gibsonguy
Took 3 NYT propagandists to write this BS.

My Tagline * 3.

9 posted on 01/20/2023 8:21:03 AM PST by libertylover (Our biggest problem, by far, is that almost all of big media is AGENDA-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“It’s really nothing”

“A minor oversight”

“Everybody does it”

Sure. Just ask anyone with a clearance what happens if you take a few marked docs home with you.


10 posted on 01/20/2023 8:21:40 AM PST by Regulator (It's fraud, Jim)
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To: Regulator
“A minor oversight”

Jo calls it a "filing error", as if his box in the garage was mistaken for the locked safe in the WH. Now if that's true, his dementia has severely worsened.

11 posted on 01/20/2023 8:23:35 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

My theory is they knew for a long long time and that’s why they did the Trump raid. So they can act like all President’s do it.

Along with the fake news they can conflate the two as being the same when they are wholly different.

Trump had his documents secured, Secret Service, and FBI approved.

Trump was President and had declassification authority which he says he declassed those documents. Depending on which ones this is most likely the case, because I remember him telling us before the raids while he was President he told his guys to declassify all that russia gate stuff.

Biden claims he didn’t even know they were there...so he abused his security clearance which If I did what he did I’d be sitting in jail right now. Especially after doing it several times.


12 posted on 01/20/2023 8:23:51 AM PST by for-q-clinton (Cancel Culture IS fascism...Let's start calling it that!)
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To: convoter2016

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/former-biden-assistant-questioned-law-enforcement-classified-docs-repeatedly-appeared-hunter-emails


13 posted on 01/20/2023 8:26:35 AM PST by EVO X ( )
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To: for-q-clinton

I generally agree with your theory. The other big difference is that Biden had NO LEGAL AUTHORITY to remove those documents. He stole them.

Then there was the huge Chinese payoff to the Biden Center at Penn. Funny how big Chinese money flows in when he leaves classified documents lying around offices.

There’s a LOT more to this story that isn’t being told. Peter Schweitzer can publish another expose of this corruption and treason, but, unfortunately, his exposes of the shady dealings of the Dem pols in DC never amount to anything. His research is meticulous and always uncover far more evidence than any of the official “investigators” ultimately find.


14 posted on 01/20/2023 8:32:48 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Once you get people to believe that a plural pronoun is singular, they'll believe anything - nicollo)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

To your point re “We will eventually learn that they knew MONTHS or more ago about this” its entirely possible that, knowing the compromised Biden documents would be a very difficult political issue for the president when viewed in isolation, the Mar-a-Lago raid was designed and carried out when it was. In other words, the damage control team knew quite awhile ago that it needed an “equivalency” for cover to lessen the impact of the discovery.

Imagine if the classified Biden documents fiasco had no precedent or “counterweight”. This careless, if not corrupt, abuse of power would look much worse. Just saying.


15 posted on 01/20/2023 8:34:07 AM PST by Starboard
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To: for-q-clinton

Good post which I did not see until after I posted my #15 (related to your view).


16 posted on 01/20/2023 8:36:14 AM PST by Starboard
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Well the deep state is expected to investigate themselves this is what happens.

And the deep state will give any outsider (Trump) a constant colonoscopy the entire time to make sure he doesn’t have time to fix stuff.

At this point we just need to dismantle ALL Federal Gov’t agencies. Blame it on the deficit and needing to get to a balanced budget but the real goal is to make federal gov’t a lot smaller. EPA, Dept of Education, IRS all can easily be completely removed and no one will miss them. DOJ/FBI is a bit harder but they are the ones that are most critical in getting rid of them. FBI required activities can go to the US Marshals and move their HQ outside of DC. Maybe put it in Texas or Tennessee. DOJ can get reduced funding so they can’t use endless pockets of money to harass citizens.


17 posted on 01/20/2023 8:39:20 AM PST by for-q-clinton (Cancel Culture IS fascism...Let's start calling it that!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

the matter was little more than a minor, good-faith mistake, unlike former President Donald Trump’s hoarding

/\

Spit.

Urinalists.

They take truth, chew it up, slobber on it, swallow it, mix it with bile, remove all that is whole and good and nutritious, mix it with bile,, let that rot as it winds its way through their desks and cubicles, then crap and

pee it on our legs.

.


18 posted on 01/20/2023 8:41:17 AM PST by cuz1961 (USCGR Veteran )
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To: Starboard
Yours is a sensible and perfectly logical conclusion. There is NOTHING these people won't do to stay in power. They grotesquely inflated the Trump claims ("nuclear secrets") and their lapdogs immediately hinted Trump should be executed like the Rosenbergs. That set the bar so high that Biden's mere "misplacing" of boxes of confidential documents at (at least) three locations seems tame and inconsequential by comparison.
"Former CIA Director Michael Hayden responded approvingly to a tweet talking about executions for those who spill nuclear secrets after it was reported that FBI agents were searching for classified documents related to nuclear weapons during their raid of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort." August 11, 2022
Of course, no such secrets were ever found in Trump's possession, but their MO accomplished their goal. Trump was yet again smeared as a "Russian Agent" and no apology was forthcoming. The smear becomes real and stays front and center in the weak minds of many Americans.
19 posted on 01/20/2023 8:43:02 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Once you get people to believe that a plural pronoun is singular, they'll believe anything - nicollo)
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To: for-q-clinton

“At this point we just need to dismantle ALL Federal Gov’t agencies.”

Victor Davis Hanson has been hammering this point for some time, that the only way to drain the swamp is to disperse all federal government agencies across the land.

What’s very disappointing about Hanson is he still HATES Trump for his personality but he barely, grudgingly acknowledges Trump’s manifold accomplishments. Trump was executing on everything Hanson believes needs to be done to preserve and restore the Republic, yet he barely gives credit to Trump for that because he is still so blinded by hatred of Trump’s foibles and quirks.

Hanson’s most recent podcast this week week is his most pessimistic ever. He knows the only way to save the country is to shrink the permanent big state and break it up, but he doesn’t see any way to accomplish that. He is so depressed that he thinks it is over for the country. Maybe his Long COVID is taking a toll on his brain.


20 posted on 01/20/2023 8:48:26 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Once you get people to believe that a plural pronoun is singular, they'll believe anything - nicollo)
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