Conservative lawyer Jonathan Turley shreds White House spin on classified documents

By 
 January 17, 2023

Conservative law professor Jonathan Turley shredded the White House over its peculiar definition of "transparency" as it continues to stonewall questions about the Biden classified document fiasco.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is "transparently unwilling to answer any questions," Turley quipped.

White House's "transparency"

Jean-Pierre has stuck closely to a handful of robotic talking points, repeatedly claiming that the administration has been "transparent" by handing documents promptly over to the government, even though the

Critics note that the documents remained a secret to the public as far back as November, before the midterm elections.

Jean-Pierre has justified her cagey responses by saying they are needed to uphold the Justice Department's "independence" from Biden, in what the White House is touting as a change from the Trump years.

In a Twitter thread, Turley said the White House is not bound by the Justice Department to keep the nation in the dark. Fingering the administration's true motives, Turley said the White House is protecting Biden, not the investigation.

"It will not undermine the Justice Department for the White House to confirm the President's position and recollection. The silence protects the President not the investigation," he wrote.

Biden's defense

Turley, a columnist and law professor at George Washington University, also knocked Jean-Pierre's failure to elaborate further on the defense that Biden had "inadvertently" mislaid the files, which were initially reported at the Penn Biden Center, a shadowy think tank.

More have continued to surface at Biden's home in Delaware, including, notoriously, near his Corvette.

Turley has written skeptically of Biden's defense, speculating that Biden may have used the documents as source material for his book and that they were likely moved more than once, which would reflect intent.

"If he or anyone working on his book dealt with clearly marked classified documents, his 'inadvertence' claims could look like a post-hoc effort to deceive the public and investigators," Turley wrote in The Hill. 

White House stonewalls

Turley blasted Jean-Pierre's "entirely opportunistic" refusal to address "her own role in conveying false or misleading information" after she continued to stonewall at Tuesday's briefing, citing the ongoing legal process.

Jean-Pierre became testy as she was peppered with more questions about whether the White House had been forthcoming about the document search.

"Look, guys, you guys can ask me this 100 times, 200 times if you wish. I’m going to keep saying the same thing. I hear your question, it’s been asked, it’s been answered, it’s been noted, and we’re just going to try to move on here," she said.

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