Kathy Chung, a former executive assistant to President Biden, has testified before the House Oversight Committee that she was not aware that any classified documents were among the papers she packed when Biden left the Vice President’s office, according to hearing transcripts obtained by CNN.
Chung testified that she did not notice any documents marked classified when she unpacked boxes at the Penn Biden Center, Biden’s think tank, though she conceded that she hadn’t closely examined the contents at the time.
In January Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur as special counsel to investigate the handling of classified documents by Biden. He likely already has this information from Chung, who now works at the Pentagon, as she was interviewed by federal investigators back in January.
Biden attorneys notified the National Archives and the Justice Department when the first batch of classified documents was discovered at the Penn Biden Center in November. The FBI has since found classified documents at his Wilmington, Delaware residence, but none at his vacation house in Rehoboth Beach.
“I take classified documents and classified materials seriously,” Biden said in mid-January, adding that he had “fully cooperated with the Justice Department review.”
A few weeks after the discovery on Biden properties in January, attorneys for former Vice President Pence said they had discovered about a dozen documents marked classified at his Carmel, Indiana home. A follow-up search about two weeks later uncovered one additional document marked classified at his residence.
In contrast to the reported cooperation from Biden and Pence, the Department of Justice and FBI investigators last month reportedly gathered new evidence pointing to possible obstruction of justice by former President Trump related to the probe into classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Jack Smith was appointed special council in November by Garland to investigate potential criminal wrongdoing by Trump. In April The Washington Post reported that Smith was focusing on the obstruction elements of the classified documents case, including whether Trump took or directed actions to impede government efforts to collect all the sensitive records. Sources told the Post that Smith was trying to determine whether there is enough evidence to ask a grand jury to charge him with obstructing the investigation.
In the wake of the revelations, the National Archives has asked other former U.S. Presidents and Vice Presidents to recheck their personal records for possible classified documents; so far, there have been no reports of others surfacing.
