By: Cooper Winkler '26
Over the past few months, many classified documents have been found in politicians' current homes, past homes, and even offices. This was brought to light back in mid 2021, with former President Donald Trump. However, government agencies are finding even more classified documents now. So, what is going on, and how is this happening?
Let’s look more in-depth at what happened. The National Archives and Records Administration is a federal agency in charge of preserving the records pertaining to our nation’s history. One of the National Archives' main jobs is making sure that classified documents are declassified.
As of right now, classified documents have been found in Former President Donald Trump, Former Vice President Mike Pence, and President Joe Biden’s residences. The first classified documents were found in Donald Trump’s estate, Mar-a-Lago. In May of 2021, the archives requested that Trump turn over the missing documents, and continued to ask for the documents until November. One of Donald Trump’s representatives told the archives of these documents, and the agency brought them back to Washington. The agency continued to ask for documents into 2022 when this became more prominent in the news. The findings of these documents resulted in the Justice Department making a criminal inquiry into Trump taking classified documents to Mar-a-Lago.
More recently, President Biden was found to have classified documents. These documents were found on November 2nd, 2022, when Biden’s private attorneys discovered around ten documents in the Penn Biden Center located in Washington, D.C. These documents were from the Obama-Biden administration and they were turned over to the National Archives. The FBI, not long after, made an inquiry about whether any laws were broken or if the classified documents were mishandled. Later, in December, more classified documents were found in his garage in Wilmington, Delaware. Documents were found all the way up to January, with five more documents being found.
Now, onto Former Vice President Pence’s documents. About twelve classified documents were found at Pence’s Indiana Residence on January 16th of 2023. A lawyer working for Pence found these documents. Pence’s team told congressional leaders and committees about these documents. Later, the FBI requested to take the classified documents, which Pence agreed to.
Why are these documents winding up in the wrong place? In late January, the National Archives even asked former presidents and vice presidents to make sure they don’t have any documents they shouldn’t have. One reason for the missing documents could pertain to the fact that the federal government classifies more than 50 million documents each year. So, statistically, a few of these documents are bound to go missing as it's very hard to keep track of all of them.
While the government does over-classify (essentially playing it safer than sorry), classified documents are classified for a reason. In order for a document to actually become classified, a government agency must give it an official determination that if its contents were released it could damage U.S. national security. Hearing of 50 million documents being classified a year, and a few going missing doesn’t sound like that big of a deal. However, these documents evidently do contain important information as their status is “classified.”
Though Biden, Pence, and Trump are the most recent examples of government officials having classified documents, they are far from the first. Many statesmen have been accused of mishandling documents, going as far back as Richard Nixon. While Nixon’s case was slightly different than the previously stated, “Watergate” was ultimately about the mishandling of documents.
In the last few months, we have heard a lot about classified documents. Beginning with Trump, then Biden, and most recently Pence, we’ve seen how the classification process works. 50 million documents are classified each year, a few of which are lost. Despite this being a hot topic in recent months, we should also remember that this isn’t new. Watergate was in 1972, 51 years ago, and perhaps the most famous example of documents being mishandled.
So it seems, even 50 years later, we’re still having the same issues surrounding classified documents. How do we fix this problem?
Sources:
CBS News New York Times CBS News CNN National Archives Time NBC News CNN New York Times US News BBC Business Insider
Photo Sources:
Edited by: Ava Paolino '25, Katarina Radulovic '24, Natalia Cseh '23, and Ms. Brilliant
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