Hakeem Jeffries gives Biden pass over mishandling of classified docs: 'Not intentional'

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Jonathan Turley says Biden wanted 'added buffer and control' with personal lawyers

The Fox News contributor joined 'America's Newsroom' to discuss the fallout over Biden's classified document scandal.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries,D-N.Y., is giving President Biden a pass over his mishandling of the classified documents found in his home and former office that some members of Congress said may have jeopardized U.S. national security.

Fox News Digital asked every member of Democratic leadership in both houses of Congress if they agreed with the assessment of some of their colleagues that Biden may have put the nation's national security at risk by keeping classified documents in unsecured locations, but none answered.

Jeffries' office, however, did respond to Fox's request for comment, but only pointed to statements he made during a Monday interview on CNN, and didn't address new questions about national security.

"I remain having full confidence in President Joe Biden and his administration on this matter and on all other matters. I think he has led the country forward in a significant and meaningful way through a few tumultuous years," Jeffries said during the interview. He added that Biden's mishandling of the classified material was "inadvertent" and "not intentional."

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Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., conducts a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center on July 13, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The office of Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also responded, but only with his statement from Jan. 12 calling U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland's appointment of a special counsel to investigate the Biden documents a "commitment" to "avoiding even the appearance of politicization."

The statement focused little on Biden's actions, and instead focused largely on the issue of former President Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago estate was raided by the FBI over the documents kept there. It made no mention of any national security concerns stemming from Biden's mishandling of the documents.

No other members of Democratic leadership responded to Fox's request for comment.

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his fellow Democratic leaders are staying silent over concerns that Biden's mishandling of classified documents may have posed a threat to national security. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Their avoidance of the concerns comes just days after Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., suggested the intelligence community should assess the documents for any potential risk they could entail.

House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., also raised concerns about potential national security implications of the documents in a statement released last week, but prior to an additional trove of documents being found at Biden's home over the weekend.

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"The fact that former Vice President Joe Biden inappropriately maintained and kept classified materials at his unsecured think tank raises serious questions about national security," she said.

House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik suggested that President Biden's mishandling of classified documents could pose a threat to national security. (Tom Williams/Getty)

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"Particularly when the documents were related to Ukraine when Biden family members were on a Ukrainian oligarch's payroll," she added.