The most important question the new special counsel should investigate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on Sunday, is who chose "not to disclose" that President Joe Biden had classified documents from the Obama administration.
"The political problem is the one that nobody has talked about yet, which is why did they wait to tell us?" Christie asked on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "I mean, they knew this before midterms."
Also, who made the order to conceal the discovery, he continued.
"The real interesting part of the special counsel investigation — more interesting than the documents themselves, because we don't know what they are right now, so we're only speculating — will be: Who made that decision?" Christie asked.
"Did Ron Klain make that decision not to disclose?" Christie asked of Biden's chief of staff. "Did Ron Klain make the decision? Did the president make the decision?
"Who made the decision to not tell the American people six days before an election? If Donald Trump had not told people six days before an election, what would the conversation be about right now? I guarantee you it would be about cover-up. And so, as a former prosecutor, you know, it's not always the obvious thing."
Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, told CBS News that the documents were discovered when Biden's personal attorneys "were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C."
In a statement after documents were found at Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware, Sauber said, "Following the discovery of documents at the Penn Biden Center in November 2022 ... the president's lawyers have searched the president's Wilmington and Rehoboth, Delaware, residences."
A timeline of events is as follows:
- Nov. 2: Lawyers find classified documents in a locked closet in the offices of the Penn Biden Center in Washington.
- Nov. 4: A Justice Department prosecutor first learns about Biden's classified documents from the National Archives' Office of the Inspector General.
- Nov. 8: Midterm elections.
- Nov. 9: DOJ begins an assessment to determine whether classified information had been mishandled in violation of federal law.
- Nov. 14: Garland selects John Lausch, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, to conduct a preliminary investigation of the material to determine whether a special counsel is needed.
- Dec. 20: Biden lawyers notify Lausch that additional classified documents were found in the garage of his Wilmington, Delaware, home.
- Jan. 5: Lausch finishes his initial investigation and concludes a special counsel appointment is warranted.
- Jan. 9: Biden lawyers announce publicly that sensitive documents were found at the office of his former institute in Washington.
- Jan. 10: Media reports say memos and briefing materials covering topics including Ukraine, Iran, and the United Kingdom were included among the 10 classified documents found in a Washington, D.C., office.
- Jan. 10: Biden says he was surprised when informed government records were found by his attorneys at his former office space in Washington.
- Jan. 10: Rep. Mike Turner, R- Ohio, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, requests that the U.S. intelligence community conduct a "damage assessment" of potentially classified documents found in the office space of the institute.
- Jan. 11: NBC News reports that at least one additional batch of classified documents were found in a location separate from the Washington, D.C., office Biden used after serving as vice president.
- Jan. 12: Biden lawyers notify DOJ of another document at the Wilmington house.
- Jan. 12: Fox News' Peter Doocy asks Biden: "Classified materials next to your Corvette? What were you thinking?" Biden: "My Corvette is in a locked garage, OK? So it's not like they're sitting out on the street."
- Jan. 12: Garland appoints Robert Hur, the former Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Maryland, as special counsel to investigate.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the chair of the House Oversight Committee, said Sunday he is seeking the visitor logs to the president's Delaware home and his former office at the Penn Biden Center.