White House confirms second set of classified documents found at Biden Delaware property – live | US politics

Pressure grows on Santos

Martin Pengelly

A growing number of Republicans are calling for George Santos to resign, though as yet party leaders have not moved against the newly elected congressman whose resumé has been shown to be largely fictional and whose campaign finances are the subject of formal complaints.

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader in the House, had stern words for Santos and Republican leaders when he spoke to reporters earlier:

He’s a complete and total fraud. He lied to the voters of the third congressional district in New York. He deceived and connived his way into Congress, and is now the responsibility of House Republicans to do something about it.

“This is not a partisan issue, but it is an issue that Republicans need to handle. Clean up your house. You can start with George Santos.”

Six New York Republicans have called for Santos to quit. Santos has said he will not.

Of a move earlier this week by two New York Democrats, Daniel Goldman and Ritchie Torres, to hand-deliver to Santos their request for an investigation of his campaign finances, Jeffries said: “I was well-aware of their decision to do so.

“But any matters before the ethics committee are before the ethics committee, and should be resolved by members of the ethics committee.”

Kevin McCarthy would seem – up to a point – to agree. The Republican House speaker told reporters today: “What I find is that voters have elected George Santos. If there is a concern he will go through ethics. If there is something that is found it will be dealt with in that manner. But they [voters] have a voice in this process.”

Read on:

Attorney general Merrick Garland has a public address planned for 1.15pm eastern time after a second batch of classified materials was found at Joe Biden’s house in Delaware. Garland may indirectly respond to calls from Republicans to appoint a special prosecutor to handle the matter, as he did for the government secrets found at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Follow this blog for the latest from his press conference as it happens.

Here’s what else has happened so far today:

• The House Democratic leader has called on George Santos to resign for lying about his qualifications. Speaker Kevin McCarthy says the chamber’s ethics body will handle his case.
• Inflation is on the decline in the United States, according to government data released today.
• Hunter Biden has issues that are more significant than Democrats would like to admit, but may add up to less than Republicans believe, the New York Times reports.

The trial of five members of the Proud Boys militia group has started today in Washington DC, Politico reports. The group is facing seditious conspiracy charges related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol:

In November, the founder of the Oath Keepers, another militia group involved in the insurrection, was found guilty of the same charge by a federal jury, along with a co-defendant.

Attorney general Merrick Garland may announce the appointment of a special counsel to handle the matter of the classified documents discovered at Joe Biden’s properties, Bloomberg News reports.

Garland is scheduled to make a public address at 1.15pm, though the justice department has not said what the speech will be about. In November, Garland appointed veteran prosecutor Jack Smith to handle the investigation into government secrets found at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, as well as his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

While there are substantial differences between the two cases, Republicans have called for a special prosecutor to handle the inquiry into the classified documents found at two properties used by the president. Here’s GOP senator Lindsey Graham:

Garland has reportedly already asked a Trump-appointed US attorney in Illinois to handle the matter of the documents found in Biden’s possession, which date to his time as vice-president under Barack Obama.

Another day in Congress, another batch of calls for New York Republican fabulist George Santos to resign.

Here’s the Democratic leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, saying Santos should leave:

At a press conference, Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy says Santos’s case will be handled by the chamber’s ethics committee, Politico reports:

As Joe Biden concluded remarks on the economy, a reporter brought up the classified document discovery and asked, “what were you thinking?”

“I’m going to get a chance to speak on all this, God willing, soon,” Biden said. “People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously. I also said we’re cooperating fully and completely with the justice department’s review.”

He then reiterated details from the statement his special counsel had put out minutes before, and moved on to the next question.

Attorney general Merrick Garland has announced he will speak at 1.15pm eastern time.

The justice department did not say what the address would be about, but it comes after the White House confirmed that classified documents dating to Joe Biden’s time as vice-president have been discovered at his Delaware home, and at a former office in Washington DC.

More classified documents were found at Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and the search of the president’s properties for secret materials from his time as vice-president under Barack Obama has concluded, the White House has announced.

“Following the discovery of government documents at the Penn Biden Center in November 2022, and coordinating closely with the Department of Justice, the President’s lawyers have searched the President’s Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, residences – the other locations where files from his Vice-Presidential office might have been shipped in the course of the 2017 transition. The lawyers completed that review last night,” the president’s special counsel Richard Sauber said in a statement.

“During the review, the lawyers discovered among personal and political papers a small number of additional Obama-Biden Administration records with classified markings. All but one of these documents were found in storage space in the President’s Wilmington residence garage. One document consisting of one page was discovered among stored materials in an adjacent room. No documents were found in the Rehoboth Beach residence.”

Sauber said the documents were turned over to the justice department. The administration has reportedly asked John Lausch, the US attorney for the northern district of Illinois who was appointed by Donald Trump, to handle the investigation into the materials.

The New York Times has today published a lengthy article investigating the business and lifestyle of a name you’ll be hearing a lot about in the coming months: Hunter Biden.

Republicans in the House of Representatives have made clear they will soon investigate Joe Biden’s son, with an eye to casting both men as corrupt. Delaware’s US attorney David C Weiss is also reportedly considering whether to charge Hunter with crimes related to allegedly lying in a background check for a gun purchase, and to his tax payments.

The Times gets into Hunter’s employment history, struggles with addiction and relationship with his father and other Washington power players. The report ultimately finds that while some of what Hunter did was questionable, it may not add up to the scandal that Republicans are trying to make it out to be:

Despite their years of efforts — including Mr. Trump’s attempt to muscle Ukraine into helping him sully the Bidens, an escapade that led to his first impeachment — Republicans have yet to demonstrate that the senior Mr. Biden was involved in his son’s business deals or took any action to benefit him or his foreign partners.

And some of what Republicans have cast as evidence that could implicate President Biden in questionable behavior by his son — assertions that father and son shared bank accounts, for example, or that the elder Mr. Biden was a partner with his son in his stillborn deal with the Chinese tycoon — is contradicted or undercut by a fuller look at Hunter Biden’s activities.

An examination by The New York Times of Mr. Weiss’s investigation and Hunter Biden’s journey to this juncture does not provide either side with the narrative they would prefer.

It highlights how he aligned himself with foreign actors eager to leverage their connections to him to further their own interests. But it also underscores how far removed the most likely legal charges against him are from the issues most aggressively promoted by Republicans — and how his father’s opponents have often twisted or exaggerated the story of his descent to score political points.

In Florida, governor Ron DeSantis’s crackdown against people accused of voting illegally led to two men being arrested at their homes wearing nothing but their underwear, one of whom was taken into custody at gunpoint. A judge later dismissed the charges against them. Sam Levine obtained video of the arrests:

Heavily armed Florida police officers descended on the homes of two men accused of illegally voting and arrested one of them at gunpoint as part of Ron DeSantis’s crackdown on voter fraud, new body-camera footage obtained by the Guardian can reveal.

Both men were in their underwear, unarmed, and placed in handcuffs as police arrested them in front of their Miami-Dade county homes on 18 August.

“Let me put on my pants,” Ronald Miller, 58, said shortly before noon, when he opened the door to find police officers surrounding his home, their guns pointed at him. “What happened?” he asked as officers instructed him to come outside, their guns still trained on him.

As they placed him in handcuffs, agents noted that Robert Wood had taken a long time to answer the door when they knocked on it. “I was asleep,” he said.

The Biden administration got some good news this morning when the bureau of labor statistics released data showing inflation declined last month, though it remains far from the levels Americans grew used to before the pandemic. The Guardian’s Dominic Rushe dived into the numbers to tell you what they mean:

Prices dropped in the US in December for the first time since May 2020, in an encouraging sign that the inflation crisis may be easing.

According to the latest consumer price index (CPI) – which measures a broad range of goods and services – the cost of living dropped 0.1% in December compared to a rise of 0.1% in November. The annual rate of inflation fell to 6.5% from 7.1% in the previous month, the sixth straight month of yearly declines, according to the bureau of labor statistics.

Falling gas prices were by far the largest contributor to the monthly decrease, falling 9.4% over the month, more than offsetting increases in shelter indexes, which rose 0.8% over the month and were 7.5% higher than a year ago.

Here’s the Guardian’s David Smith on what little we know about the reports that emerged yesterday of a second batch of classified materials found somewhere linked to Joe Biden, and how it compares to what was found at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort:

Joe Biden was facing fresh scrutiny over his handling of government secrets on Wednesday after a second batch of classified materials was reportedly found at a location linked to him.

The White House was already on the defensive after revelations that classified documents were discovered last November in an office used by Biden after he served as US vice-president. On Tuesday he said he was “surprised to learn” of their existence.

Then came a report from the NBC News network, followed by other media outlets, that said the president’s aides had found another set of classified documents at a separate location. The classification level, number and precise location of the material was not immediately clear, NBC News added.

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Not much is known about the second batch of classified documents that turned up somewhere linked to Joe Biden, but one thing is for sure: the president is going to be answering questions about the discoveries for some time. Many of the most inquisitive will be Republicans looking to argue that Biden isn’t so different from Donald Trump when it comes to his handling of government secrets, even though there are notable differences between the two cases. Expect to hear more about this today.

Here’s what else is in the forecast:

• The latest inflation data shows consumer prices fell in December and yearly price growth continued to moderate, both signs that America’s inflation bout may be ending, or at least easing.
• Biden will speak about the inflation figures and the economy in general at 10 am eastern time.
• House Republicans will today debate a bill to stop the Strategic Petroleum Reserve from selling its barrels to the Chinese Communist Party.