FIRST ON FOX: A government watchdog filed a federal complaint over the involvement of the White House Counsel’s office in President Biden’s growing classified documents scandal.
Fox News Digital has learned that government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) filed their complaint with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on Tuesday.
‘The American public will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice – with well-connected insiders subject to a lower standard of scrutiny than the normal citizen,’ PPT director Mike Chamberlain said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
‘President Biden promised the most ethical and transparent administration in history,’ Chamberlain said. ‘If the White House compounded a scandal involving possible mishandling of classified documents by improperly using taxpayer resources for his personal benefit and putting White House attorneys in positions that created conflicts of interest, we could be witnessing a serious betrayal of the public’s already-plummeting trust.’
‘It also creates the spectre of possible obstruction of a congressional investigation, depending on the legal basis for the intervention and any future privileges claimed by the White House on this escalating scandal,’ he added.
In the complaint, which was first obtained by Fox News Digital, PPT alleged that ‘taxpayer resources may have been inappropriately used by senior White House lawyers, including Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber, to personally benefit Joe Biden.’
‘We further believe that the apparent representation of Mr. Biden by the White House Counsel’s Office in this matter creates an untenable conflict of interest for that office,’ the complaint reads.
‘The result, intended or not, could be to reduce transparency into the mishandling of state secrets and foreclose disclosure of communications between White House Counsel staff while acting on behalf of Joe Biden in his capacity as a citizen facing the prospect of criminal prosecution,’ it continues.
House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, weighed in on the complaint, asking why the president’s special counsel was with Department of Justice (DOJ) officials gathering the classified documents.
‘Why was White House Special Counsel Richard Sauber accompanying DOJ officials while they collected classified documents at the Biden residence?’ Jordan asked. ‘Mr. Sauber’s role raises serious concerns about the integrity of the Justice Department’s investigation.’
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The complaint comes as Biden weathers the growing scandal that saw the discovery of two batches of documents in the Penn Biden Center and the president’s Wilmington, Delaware garage next to his Corvette.
The White House has also been under fire for the lack of visitors logs at the president’s Delaware home. They told Fox News Digital on Monday that the logs do not exist.
George Washington University (GWU) law professor Jonathan Turley says that President Joe Biden’s lawyers are ‘likely witnesses in a criminal investigation’ as the probe into Biden’s handling of classified documents continues.
