"Transparency" Is Not Transparent

Biden’s whirlwind final days as vice president had aides scrambling to close his White House office https://t.co/YCimNUOP75

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 13, 2023

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.

As Biden was busy keeping busy, however, his office was shutting down. Aides scrambled to pack up his workspaces in the West Wing, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and at his official residence, the Naval Observatory.

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.

Is this the time when we can discuss how transitions are conducted (we've been doing them for 200+ years now) and how classified documents are actually handled (as opposed to the spy movie versions  like I just heard Andrea Mitchell describing.  She seems to think every classified document has an Apple AirTag attached to it, or is checked out by a librarian.)?

No, probably not. 

Schumer says “yes” he supports a special counsel being named in the Biden docs case. “Let them do their job,” he says on CNN. “I think the Biden folks … cooperated from Day One, and Donald Trump didn’t.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 13, 2023

Lets remember that what we are (correctly) asking the current WH to do - be as transparent as possible about what happened and when - is something Trump has not done at all, to this day, with respect to the MAL docs, other than put out a series of lies.

— Andrew Weissmann 🌻 (@AWeissmann_) January 12, 2023

There's also the simple fact that most people on the intertoobs have never handled a classified document in their lives, wouldn't know one if it walked up and shook their hand, and yet are experts on how they are handled and what the criminal consequences are for any deviation from what they think the requirements are.  I understand (also from MSNBC this morning; I was in the car running errands) that there is training in how to handle classified documents when they aren't where they should be.  Obviously the interest is in returning them to custody, not scaring anybody within the vicinity of one into burning it or heading for the nearest shredder to destroy the evidence of a supposed crime.  Really, it comes back to willfulness.  Yes, Trump will continue to scream that John Smith hates him, but that's not a legal defense.  And the way the House is beclowning itself, this is little more than Biden's turn in the barrel.  And it's a might small barrel.

BTW, on the question of "transparency":  If it's true (as is likely) that Biden's staff handled these documents, not Biden, it behooves Biden and his press people to keep mum about this, because there are staff members being investigated for possible criminal prosecution.  Biden is protected as the sitting POTUS; they aren't.  Fair is fair; he doesn't need to say anything, himself or through his mouthpieces, that throws some staff member, present or former, into the criminal justice machinery. 

Look, Steven, that's your version of the case" -- KJP in response to a loaded question from Steven Portnoy pic.twitter.com/gtNryw672R

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 13, 2023

Yes, the President is a political figure. But the criminal investigation will involved non-political players who may face serious consequences for their actions. QED.

What happened will eventually see the light; and it won't shake the foundations of the republic.  Not like Trump did in Mar-A-Lago, anyway.