Top Secret
The United States' current president, Joseph R. Biden, is currently under investigation. Revelation is outpouring, for Joe Biden has been found of possessing multiple classified documents. This mishap has been seen before with the previous U.S. president, Donald Trump, since he was found of wrongly withholding over 100 classified documents. Classified documents are material with information that the government body deems to be sensitive and needs protection from unauthorized disclosure.
The documents in Biden’s possession were found on multiple instances. On November 4th, the National Archive informed the Department of Justice of the discovery of some classified documents in Biden’s office. Following so, on December 20th another set of documents was found. Two days after CBS News released the story of these newly found documents, yet again another document was found, and, later, five more. This material, according to ABC News, is from Biden’s term as vice president. Biden claims he was “surprised” to learn about the finding of these documents, and that he is “cooperating fully and completely” with the Justice Department. The White House has also said Biden is unaware of the content within these documents.
According to Executive Order 13526, there is a prescribed, uniform system in order to classify and secure these documents. Each document varies in level of classification. The highest being top secret, then secret, followed by confidential. Material that must follow this order can vary from foreign government information to information on nuclear weapons. These documents are preserved, then declassified, eventually allowing people to get access to them.
Historian Matthew Connelly notes in a “Fresh Air” interview on NPR News this January that information is marked as classified three times every second, making a multitude of secret documents; thus, it's almost impossible to properly preserve them all. Some documents are even claimed to be missing from certain periods of time. For now, though, President Joe Biden is still undergoing investigation.
