Donald Trump, the former
United States president, is subject of a Justice Department investigation for
taking government documents to his residence in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago,
after demitting office. While the probity of taking government documents,
especially secret documents home, after demitting office is being investigated,
there are questions on whether a US president can take documents home at all.
United States President Joe Biden weighed in on the subject Friday while
speaking to reporters.

Joe Biden was leaving the
White House when reporters asked him questions about the Justice Department’s
probe into Donald Trump. Talking about how he takes documents home, the US
President said, “I’m taking home today today’s PDB (Presidential Daily Brief).
It’s locked. I have a person with me, military with me. I read it. I lock it
back up. I give it to the military.”

Also Read | FBI raid at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago: A timeline based on Justice Department affidavit

Biden was asked if it was
appropriate to take documents home. To this, he said, “It depends on the
circumstance – for example, I have in my home a cabined-off space that is completely
secure.” According to a CNN report, this cabined off space is the Sensitive
Compartmented Information Facility built to handle classified information.

Reporters further asked
Biden if it was appropriate to take classified documents home. Joe Biden said
it depends on the documents and “it depends on how secure everything is.”

Joe Biden also responded to
questions on whether Trump could indeed have declassified the documents he had
taken home. The US President scoffed and said sarcastically, “I just want you to
know I’ve declassified everything in the world. I’m President, I can do – c’mon.”

Also Read | Justice dept affidavit: Did Trump have ‘absolute authority to declassify documents’?

These were perhaps Joe Biden’s
most expansive comments on the investigation into his predecessor so far. “I’m
not going to comment because I don’t know the details. I don’t even want to
know. I’ll let the Justice Department take that,” he said Friday.

Members of the Biden
administration have largely remained quiet on the probe into Donald Trump.
However, a CNN report claims there is concern on what exactly the former president
took with him when he demitted office.