Trump and Biden have each been accused of mishandling classified documents when they left office previously, which they’re hoping to avoid this time around.

“The president is committed to making sure this transition is effective and efficient, and he’s doing that because this is the norm,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. “But also because this is the right thing to do for the American people.”

It’s a goal that has eluded both presidents in the past.

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was raided in August of 2022 as FBI agents searched for documents stored there that dated to the first Trump administration. The next month, Biden wondered aloud “how … anyone could be that irresponsible” as to leave classified documents in a storage room of their house.

However, just weeks later, classified documents from the Obama-Biden administration were found in Biden’s private office, and a special counsel report later revealed that Biden had been caught on tape acknowledging he had classified documents in his home as early as 2017.

Administration officials are hoping for better outcomes this time around, even as frustration emanates from each side of the aisle. Bradley Moss, a national security attorney who has been critical of Trump’s post-presidency storage of documents at Mar-a-Lago, said the lack of consequences Trump has faced leaves little incentive for Biden to be cooperative.

Biden could “straight up walk out of the White House with whatever classified documents he wants, give everyone the middle finger while chanting ‘Presidential Records Act,’ and claim immunity,” Moss told the Washington Examiner. “Of course, no one expects President Biden to do anything like that. The expectation is that his team is being particularly careful to avoid any inadvertent removal of classified records over the next months.”

But Mike Howell, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, feels that more may need to be done to ensure Biden’s outgoing transition is handled properly and rejects the notion that Trump has gotten off easy.

“President Biden tried to put Trump in jail for the rest of his life,” Howell said. “He coordinated with lawfare exercises across the country. He wanted Trump to die in jail. He called him a threat to democracy. I don’t think that because Biden shows up for customary tea party that he is forgiven.”

That “tea party” is a scheduled Wednesday morning meeting between Biden and Trump in the Oval Office. Since the election, Biden has made a point of giving Trump the statesman-like, orderly transition that he was denied upon taking office four years ago.

Unlike Trump, Biden was never charged criminally for mishandling classified documents because Special Counsel Robert Hur concluded the 81-year-old president “would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Republicans in Congress remain skeptical that Biden or his team will handle records appropriately and have pledged to conduct oversight as needed.

“The White House has not been truthful about the timeline surrounding the discovery of classified documents that President Biden stored at the Penn Biden Center,” House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) said. “President Biden has not been honest with the American people about retaining classified documents from his time as a senator and as vice president, nor has he instilled confidence that he will refrain from taking classified documents in the future.”

“We fully expect those responsible for managing presidential records to closely monitor the presidential transition and ensure that President Biden complies with the law,” Comer added.

The process still has more than two months to play out before Biden leaves office on January 20 and is sure to draw scrutiny as it happens.

Biden announced earlier this year the formation of the Presidential Records Transition Task Force to address what his administration calls a “long-standing problem” of mishandling, yet the effort has been barely discussed since its formation last February. 

Another wrinkle in the saga is that Trump has yet to approve working with the General Services Administration as part of the transition process. The GSA provides office space, equipment, administrative support, and other services as required under the Presidential Transition Act, but Trump is refusing to cooperate with his transition so far.

Irina Tsukerman, a national security analyst and lawyer, said the biggest impact of Trump not signing the GSA paperwork is that he has not received security briefings, though he may be able to get some of the information from unclassified sources.

“Unless he signs off on the documentation to obtain this information from the Biden administration, in all likelihood he will not be gaining access to it until the inauguration that will delay how quickly his team can jump into addressing the various crises and concerns,” Tsukerman said.

Ironically, it may be Trump’s distrust of the Biden administration and security agencies that is preventing him from coordinating with GSA. Allies of Trump have suggested he should privately fund his transition to prevent any government interference.

Tsukerman said that major changes are needed to reform the procedures for handling classified documents.

“To show seriousness about national security means that the buck stops with the top players, and that prison terms should very much be on the table to prevent officials from walking off with classified information,” she said. “Moreover, executive privilege and sovereign immunity should no longer apply after presidents leave office.”

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For now, Republicans in Congress will be keeping a close eye on Biden and his administration during his last two months in office.

“Any individual in the federal ranks who destroys records to conceal information from the newly elected administration should face consequences,” Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) said. “Expectations for a peaceful transfer of power should encompass the entire administration, and not just the Office of the President.”