A new CNN report detailed how then-Vice President Joe Biden’s last days in office were such a “whirlwind” that his aides’ efforts to properly pack up his office, including securing classified documents, were “muddled and hurried,” leading to the classified papers being misplaced.
The CNN report attempted to shed more light on how classified documents ended up at the offices of now-President Biden’s think tank in November, and more recently found in his Delaware residence, reportedly stored next to his corvette in the garage.
The recent revelations have prompted a Department of Justice investigation into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, with Attorney General Merrick Garland appointing special counsel for the case on Thursday.
According to CNN, the documents seemed to be misplaced amid the chaos of the transition from the Obama to Trump presidencies. The report noted, “Partly to wrap up his policy portfolios, partly to tout his accomplishments, and partly to occupy himself following the death of his son a year earlier, Biden thrust himself into work in a final sprint to mark what then appeared to be the end of a four-decade run at the highest levels of government.”
With Biden’s office being occupied until the last minute, the piece stated, “Aides scrambled to pack up his workspaces in the West Wing, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and at his official residence, the Naval Observatory.”
CNN spoke to some unnamed sources familiar with the last days, one of which admitted, “It was just a really, really weird time for everyone.”
The report further described the transition as such: “The looming arrival of Trump to the White House left many of Obama and Biden’s aides wary of the future and eager to cement many of their accomplishments.” Sources said it was “an uneasy moment.”
It declared, “Those competing objectives – to use his office until the final minutes even as it was obliged to shut down – made for a muddled and hurried process that left aides packing boxes of documents and papers late into the night, even as more material kept arriving.”