U.S. Secret Service officials are reportedly gathering information they may possess about visitors to President Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home.
The agency denied a visitors’ log existed for the president’s home but acted upon correspondence from Senate Republicans requesting visitor identities.
The Conservative Brief further reported:
The U.S. Secret Service is reportedly “gathering” information about who visited President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware after he left his eight-year vice presidency in response to demands from Senate Republicans amid a scandal involving his potentially illegal possession of classified documents.
The Washington Examiner reported Thursday that the demand includes information on “all individuals” who visited the residence as well as other places where Biden stashed classified documents, including a private office he used at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.
The outlet noted further:
Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson wrote to the Secret Service on Monday in a letter first obtained by the Washington Examiner and requested the visitor logs. Now, the Secret Service said it is evaluating that letter and is “currently in the process of gathering” various information, as well as “working through appropriate channels” to locate what “may be responsive to Congressional inquiries.”
“We are in receipt of Senator Grassley’s letter and it is currently is being reviewed,” Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, told the outlet, which reported that he also said the USSS does not maintain “formal and comprehensive visitor logs for protected residences.”
“What I mean by that is there is not a system of validated visitor logs like you find at the White House or other government facilities that fall under the Presidential Records Act,” he noted further in a Wednesday email to the outlet.
Guglielmi did say, though, that the agency keeps some records on certain visitors like particular “contractors” or “workers.” In addition, the Secret Service collects information about the “law enforcement and criminal justice” histories of people who visit protected sites.
At the Wilmington location, classified documents were found stored haphazardly in Biden’s garage where he stores his vintage Chevrolet Corvette.
“I hope the Secret Service will be transparent and cooperative as Sen. Grassley and I investigate Joe Biden’s mishandling of our nation’s top secrets,” Johnson said on Monday.
Late last week, after initially denying it, the Secret Service said it had some records regarding who visited Biden’s Delaware residence.
Following an initial report that the documents were discovered, congressional Republicans demanded to see visitor logs from the Biden residence but were told by the agency that because it is a private home, no official visitor logs were kept.
As reported by the New York Post, Guglielmi claimed Monday that “we don’t independently maintain our own visitor logs because it’s a private residence.”
“The Secret Service doesn’t maintain visitor logs at the private residences of protectees. The visitor logs that are kept at government buildings are part of the National Archives and Records Administration, and while we have access to those, we are not the custodian of those records and logs,” he added, according to The New York Times.
However, on Friday, Guglielmi said that “the Secret Service does generate law enforcement and criminal justice information records for various individuals who may come into contact with Secret Service protected sites.”
Also, the outlet noted, Fox News quoted an unnamed source who promised that “the Secret Service is prepared to provide available background information on vetted guests to Biden’s residence if requested by Congress.”
“While the White House has not kept a formal list, the Secret Service does collect information on guests with regular access to the home. Retention of the names of those vetted by the Secret Service depends on a variety of factors, including proximity to the president and the nature of the background check,” said Fox News.
The Post added:
The agency’s initial statement that it had no information to provide to journalists or members of Congress caused an uproar, with Republican lawmakers floating subpoenas for Biden’s family members and staff to plug the gaps in documentation.
“There are several avenues to obtain information on who had access to classified documents at the Wilmington residence, and the Oversight Committee will pursue those avenues,” a spokesman for the House Oversight Committee told the outlet.
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