NLPC Files FOIAs to Find Out How Classified Documents Ended Up at Biden Center

The National Legal and Policy Center today filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the Department of Justice and the National Archives to determine how approximately a dozen classified documents, and other presidential records of the Obama-Biden Administration, have been stored at the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C.

The Biden Center is a think tank funded by the University of Pennsylvania, which has received over $60 million in donations from Chinese entities, of which approximately $22 million is anonymous.

The revelation of the stored classified documents came to light yesterday, with the White House issuing a statement that both classified and unclassified White House records were discovered on November 2, 2022, before the mid-term elections, “when the President’s personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.”

Some questions that need to be answered:

• Why was this discovery kept secret before the mid-term elections and held for two months?
• Why are private attorneys moving an academic office?
• Why is the Biden Center moving, when they have a 4–5-year lease remaining on the expensive 14,000-square-foot prime space with stunning views of the Capitol Building?
• Why hasn’t the Justice Department searched the Biden Center to see if other documents are stored there?

The Biden Center opened its offices on February 8, 2018, at 101 Constitution Ave, N.W., which Joe Biden used as an occasional office and where Antony Blinken, now Secretary of State, served as the Biden Center’s Executive Director.

Before he announced his presidency in 2019, Biden received approximately $900,000 from the University of Pennsylvania for giving a handful of lectures. He later appointed Amy Gutman, the President of the University, as Ambassador to Germany. During her confirmation hearings, she dodged questions about the source of the Chinese donations, falsely stating that the Department of Education required they be kept anonymous.

NLPC filed a complaint against the University of Pennsylvania and the Biden Center in 2020 for failing to disclose the source of anonymous Chinese donations, and also with the Justice Department against Hunter Biden and the Biden Center for failing to register as a foreign agent.

“While the Justice Department has been relentless in going after former President Donald Trump for storing classified documents, they use kid gloves when it comes to Joe Biden,” said Paul Kamenar, counsel to the National Legal and Policy Center.

“It’s time that the House Oversight Committee, now chaired by Representative James Comer, conduct a full investigation of this matter, including the Chinese money connection to the Biden Center and Hunter Biden,” said Peter Flaherty, Chairman of NLPC.