Another shoe dropped Wednesday afternoon as MSNBC correspondents Ken Dilanian and Carol Lee reported exclusively that a second batch of confidential documents was found at a location associated with President Biden, possibly at one of his homes in Delaware. But instead of the shrill suggestions of espionage and other forms of impropriety they leveled against former President Trump, the far-left liberal network manned the ramparts and tried to downplay their own reporting.
“We got to get some news breaking to us just in the last couple of minutes here at NBC News,” host Hallie Jackson announced on her eponymous show. “Aides to President Biden have apparently discovered another set of classified documents. This time in a different location than the office where the first batch was discovered, according to a person familiar with the matter.”
As the Justice and intelligence correspondent, Dilanian was up first to report that “aides to President Biden have been conducting an exhaustive search, we are told, of other locations … Because if it happened once and it could happen again.”
Dilanian immediately tried to downplay the seriousness of classified documents being in an unapproved location for six years. “And again, we don't know whether this is anything more than inadvertent error by whoever was packing the documents as they left the Biden White House,” he suggested, without evidence.
Of the information they didn’t have, he noted: “We don't know the extent, nature of the classification of the documents. We don't know exactly when they were found.” “But it’s significant because it shows that the scope of this may be more broad than we first realized,” he admitted.
Jackson, parroting White House talking points, then went to former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance to provide a legal defense of the apparent klepto President:
JACKSON: Joyce, the White House has made clear that these documents were turned over immediately the second they were found essentially. What does that say to you, what does that mean for any potential legal culpability here?
(…)
VANCE: Even in a situation like this, where all of the appearances are that this is a team of Biden lawyers who are going above and beyond doing prophylactic searches in every area where they know doctors are to ensure that no classified material is in an improper place. There is every appearance that this is a mistake, and mistakes do happen in this area, they shouldn't, but they do, on occasion. This appears to be a mistake, not a willful action.
Regarding those talking points, Jackson may have also lied to her audience. She claimed the White House made that point clear, but when speaking to Lee, an NBC News White House correspondent, they made a point to note the White House had not responded to a request for comment.
Seemingly unsatisfied with Vance’s legal defense of the President, Dilanian later spoke up and claimed, without evidence, that “there is no evidence of” a “nefarious purpose” for taking the documents “even if it was to protect from embarrassment.”
And he concluded the segment by proclaiming that there was nothing that would give Attorney General Merrick Garland a reason to hire a special counsel to investigate Biden:
And Merrick Garland, we are reporting, has been briefed on the preliminary findings of the U.S. attorney in Chicago, with the help of the FBI who investigated this matter. And now he has to decide whether there is a criminal issue here, whether to appoint a special counsel, to move forward, with a criminal investigation. And based on what we know right now, there is no reason to think that we decide that that’s necessary.
This blatant attempt to protect President Biden from himself was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Coventry Direct and CarShield. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand to read:
MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson Reports
January 11, 2023
3:38:18 p.m. EasternHALLIE JACKSON: We got to get some news breaking to us just in the last couple of minutes here at NBC News.
Aides to President Biden have apparently discovered another set of classified documents. This time in a different location than the office where the first batch was discovered, according to a person familiar with the matter.
I want to bring in now the team breaking this story, NBC News White House correspondent Carol Lee, our Justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian. Ken, let me start with you. What do we know?
KEN DILANIAN: Hallie, aides to President Biden have been conducting an exhaustive search, we are told, of other locations to make sure they’ve gathered up all of the classified documents that went to the wrong place. Because if it happened once and it could happen again. And what we’re told is that they have found at least one additional batch of classified documents.
Now, that’s basically all we know. We don't know the extent, nature of the classification of the documents. We don't know exactly when they were found. And again, we don't know whether this is anything more than inadvertent error by whoever was packing the documents as they left the Biden White House.
But it’s significant because it shows that the scope of this may be more broad than we first realized. We were initially talking about a set of a less than a dozen documents in one location, at the Penn Biden Center. Now it appears there are more classified documents that went astray after Joe Biden left the Obama administration.
JACKSON: Former federal prosecutor and U.S. attorney and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance is joining us as well. Ken, stand by for a second.
Joyce, the White House has made clear that these documents were turned over immediately the second they were found essentially. What does that say to you, what does that mean for any potential legal culpability here?
(…)
3:41:04 p.m. Eastern
JOYCE VANCE: Even in a situation like this, where all of the appearances are that this is a team of Biden lawyers who are going above and beyond doing prophylactic searches in every area where they know doctors are to ensure that no classified material is in an improper place. There is every appearance that this is a mistake, and mistakes do happen in this area, they shouldn't, but they do, on occasion. This appears to be a mistake, not a willful action.
(…)
3:44:35 p.m. Eastern
DILANIAN: Now, this reporting alone, to answer your question, Hallie, does not really speak to the issues that Joyce was talking about. Because that, the criminal issue here, all hinges on intent, and whether anything knowingly removed classified information for some nefarious purpose, even if it was to protect from embarrassment. There have been cases of that in American history, where officials have taken documents because they didn't want the public to see them. There is no evidence of that, that we know of in public.
And so, the Justice Department right now is faced with – they know more than we do, and they know the circumstances of how these circumstances came to be in the wrong place and who got them there.
And Merrick Garland, we are reporting, has been briefed on the preliminary findings of the U.S. attorney in Chicago, with the help of the FBI who investigated this matter. And now he has to decide whether there is a criminal issue here, whether to appoint a special counsel, to move forward, with a criminal investigation. And based on what we know right now, there is no reason to think that we decide that that’s necessary. But as this new reporting shows, there's a lot we don't know about this whole situation.
(…)
