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Seeing the classified documents turned up by an Aug. 8 FBI
search of Trump's Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago caused Biden
to wonder "how anyone can be that irresponsible," he said in an
interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" program.
"I thought, what data was in there that may compromise sources
and methods? And by that, I mean, names of people who help etc.,
and it's just totally irresponsible."
The remarks broke with Biden's pattern of avoiding commenting on
the Justice Department's criminal probe of his onetime political
rival for possibly taking ultra-sensitive material to his
residence after his term ended in January 2021.
Biden, a Democrat, defeated the Republican Trump in the 2020
presidential election. Trump, who has weighed another run for
office, has described the court-approved search as politically
motivated.
Biden said he had not received a classified briefing on the
contents of those documents.
"I have not asked for the specifics of those documents because I
don't want to get myself in the middle of whether or not the
Justice Department should move or not move on certain actions
they can take," Biden said. "I agreed I would not tell them what
to do and not, in fact, engage in telling them how to prosecute
or not."
The Justice Department has said it was investigating Trump for
removing White House records because it believed he illegally
held documents including some involving intelligence-gathering
and clandestine human sources - among America's most closely
held secrets.
Biden's intelligence chief is also investigating whether the
disclosure of information in those documents presented national
security risks.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Bradley Perrett)
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