The House Oversight Committee has scheduled an interview with a former executive assistant to President Joe Biden next month as part of its investigation into classified documents found at Biden’s home and office.
A committee spokeswoman said Thursday that the Republican-led panel would meet with Cathy Chung on April 4. A source with knowledge of the matter said Chung has scheduled an interview with the panel.
Chung’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the planned meeting, which was first reported by CNN.
Chung, now deputy director of protocol for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, was Biden’s executive assistant when he was vice president and helped pack up the contents of his office in January 2017 during the transition.
He is also among former aides who have already been interviewed by federal law enforcement officials reviewing how classified documents ended up at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware and his Washington, D.C., office, the sources said. previously told NBC News.
The House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., began its investigation in January after it was revealed that a “small number” of classified documents were found in a closet in Biden’s former office at the Penn Biden Center. A few days before the midterm elections in Washington last November.
Other Obama-era documents were later discovered at Biden’s Delaware home, as well as other documents from his time in the Senate.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland in January designated a special counsel “to investigate whether any person or entity has violated the law in connection with this matter.”
After Garland appointed Robert Hurr as special counsel, White House counsel Richard Sauber said, “We have cooperated closely with the Department of Justice throughout its review, and we will continue that cooperation with the special counsel.” We are confident that a thorough review will reveal that these documents were inadvertently lost, and that the President and his attorneys acted promptly upon learning of this mistake.
The White House Counsel’s Office said in January that it was reviewing Comer’s requests for information “with the goal of accommodating legitimate oversight interests within the committee’s jurisdiction as well as the constitutional principles of separation of powers and the executive branch.” and honoring statutory obligations and the White House in particular.
The discovery of the Biden document came after the FBI executed a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s Florida home in August. The search came after federal investigators received information that Trump failed to hand over presidential documents, including those with classified markings, that he had been subpoenaed.
A bipartisan group of high-ranking lawmakers received preliminary information from the intelligence community last month about documents found at Biden and Trump properties, as well as classified documents found at the home of former Vice President Mike Pence.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio, R-Fla. said that the February 28 briefing “left much to be desired.”
Comer was not one of the lawmakers briefed by administration officials that day.
