On Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre offered several non-answers to questions about the recent developments, while reminding the media that the administration has been “fully cooperating” with the DOJ investigation and continues planning to do so.
“I’m just not going to go beyond what the president said,” Jean-Pierre said during the press briefing. “We have talked about this at length. We’ve had multiple statements on this.”
The Biden administration has scrambled to address the classified, Obama-era documents that have been found in Biden’s possession. This week, it was revealed that two batches of records were found in November and December—a discovery that led Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel investigation on Thursday.
Asked about the processes surrounding the taking of classified materials by former presidents and vice presidents, Jean-Pierre referred reporters to the White House counsel’s office.
Other questions about the ongoing Department of Justice review were deferred to the department itself, citing “respect” to the federal agency. Nearly every question was referred to the White House counsel.
While Jean-Pierre said that the Biden administration was not given a heads up about the announcement of a special counsel appointment, she said she could not provide specifics about how Biden was informed and by whom.
“What I can say is what the president has said before, what I have said multiple times—we take this very seriously. The president takes classified information, classified documents very seriously,” the press secretary said.
Jean-Pierre’s remarks have drawn contrast to the administration’s promise to “bring transparency and truth back to the government to share the truth, even when it’s hard to hear”—a vow the White House made on Biden’s first day as president.
Grilled about those promises by CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe on Thursday, Jean-Pierre said she “disagree[d]” with O’Keefe’s remarks that there was a limit to those vows of transparency.
“There has not been a limit of transparency,” Jean-Pierre told O’Keefe. “I disagree with you on that.”
“We have been transparent here,” the press secretary said. “That is why the minute that his lawyers found those documents, they reported it. They reached out to the Archives and the Department of Justice, and they did that voluntarily, and they were not compelled to do it.”
Asked, “How can you say this was transparent when you sat on this information for more than two months?” Jean-Pierre moved on to the next reporter.
