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Biden is trapped in uncertain territory
That Biden is now also facing an investigation by a special counsel over alleged mishandling of classified materials, just like his erstwhile and potential rival Trump, spells an uncertain patch in his political trajectory ahead of the upcoming election year.
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United States President Joe Biden speaks at an event on CHIPS manufacturing held on Oct. 27, 2022 at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)
I
n a matter of days, things have suddenly taken a very ugly turn for United States President Joe Biden. It appears his political career has plunged into an uncertain patch.
This year started on a rather positive note for President Biden: economic indicators were moving upward, inflation was slowing down, his approval rating was showing improvement and the Democrats were united behind him for his 2024 reelection campaign while the Republicans were busy in settling their internal feuds.
All was set for a good start to 2023 for Biden, but the case surrounding his handling of classified materials has suddenly changed the whole complexion.
On Nov. 2, 2022 Biden’s personal attorneys first found a set of classified documents in a locked closet while moving boxes out of the Penn Biden Center, a Washington-based think tank where he had worked after he left the vice presidency in 2017 until he launched his presidential campaign in 2019. The attorneys notified the National Archives, which retrieved the documents the next day and referred the matter to the Justice Department.
On Dec. 20, 2022 the Justice Department was informed that another set of classified documents had been discovered in the garage at Biden’s Wilmington home, near his Corvette, and the cache was immediately handed over to agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland then revealed that another search was conducted on Jan. 11 at the President’s private home, and a few more official records were recovered from the library. Subsequent to this, Garland appointed Robert Hur, a onetime US attorney appointed by former president Donald Trump, as a special counsel to lead the investigation into this very sensitive case.
Interestingly, two months ago, Garland had also appointed a special counsel to investigate a similar case involving Trump. This shows that the Justice Department is working independently on the high-profile cases of two presidents in an inordinately heated political environment.
