总统乔·拜登周三再次回避了关于对文件的调查在一名特别律师被任命调查此事的六天后，在他的家和办公室发现了标有“机密”字样的物品。
拜登在特拉华州的家中度过了假日周末，离开了公众的视线，没有计划周三的公共活动，也没有回答记者在周二和上周晚些时候的无关活动中提出的问题。
自那以后，总统还没有公开回应司法部长梅里克·加兰周四任命罗伯特·胡尔调查对机密文件的潜在不当处理。
当它努力控制政治余波时白宫已经向司法部提交了许多问题称其不想干涉正在进行的调查。
但司法部尚未公开表示，它是否要求或建议白宫在调查期间不要发表评论。调查是在文件首次被发现后不久于11月启动的。
在周三的新闻发布会上，当美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)在新闻发布会上问及司法部是否已经告诉白宫，它不能讨论有关文件的细节时，司法部副部长丽莎·摩纳哥(Lisa Monaco)拒绝置评。
白宫表示，它正在与Hur合作——就像它表示它正在配合司法部正在进行的调查一样——白宫法律顾问办公室在一系列书面声明中披露了一些信息。拜登的私人律师鲍勃·鲍尔(Bob Bauer)也在周末发表了一份声明，解释了搜索过程是如何进行的。
但是白宫也留下一些关键问题没有回答，包括发现的文件的性质以及为什么没有更早通知公众。
新闻秘书郭佳欣·让-皮埃尔和白宫法律顾问办公室的发言人伊恩·萨姆斯一再将记者的问题提交给司法部，而司法部本身并没有分享太多信息。
让-皮埃尔在周二的新闻发布会上对记者说:“当涉及到司法部、法律事务、法律问题时，我们已经非常清楚，我们不会发表评论，我们不会进行政治干预。”。"这也是法律问题的延续."
自从1月9日的一篇新闻报道公开了在他离开副总统职位后使用的一间办公室发现标有机密的文件这一事实以来，总统本人只谈过两次这个话题。
第二天，拜登回答了关于此事的一个问题。然后，在白宫透露发现了更多文件后，周四他回答了一名记者关于新一批文件的提问。
周二，在椭圆形办公室与荷兰首相面对面的会见中，当一名记者问他是否会承诺与特别顾问交谈时，拜登似乎笑了。但除此之外，他没有任何回应。
与此同时，国家档案馆已经告诉众议院监督委员会的共和党主席，在档案馆向该小组移交记录之前，司法部需要与新任命的特别顾问协商，“评估信息是否可以在不干涉的情况下公布”，以调查在佩恩·拜登中心和拜登威尔明顿家中发现的机密文件。
代理档案保管员黛布拉·沃尔(Debra Wall)在给众议员詹姆斯·卡莫(James Comer)的一封信中说，已经开始搜索委员会要求的与拜登文件有关的信息，并建议档案馆需要就任何此类记录的发布与DOJ进行磋商。
Biden again avoids questions on classified documents special counsel
President Joe Biden on Wednesday again avoided questions about an investigation into documents marked classified found at his home and office, six days after a special counsel was named to investigate the matter.
Biden had no public events planned for Wednesday, after spending the holiday weekend at his Delaware home, out of the public eye, and not responding to reporters' shouted questions during unrelated events Tuesday and late last week.
The president has not yet offered a public reaction since Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appointed Robert Hur to investigate the potential mishandling of classified documents.
As it works to contain the political fallout, the White House has referred numerous questions to the Justice Department, saying it did not want to interfere with an ongoing investigation.
But the Justice Department has not said publicly if it has asked or advised the White House to refrain from commenting during its investigation, which it launched in November shortly after documents were first found.
And at a news conference Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco declined to comment when asked by ABC News at a news conference whether the department had told the White House it cannot discuss details surrounding the documents.
The White House has said it is cooperating with Hur – as it said it had with the Justice Department's ongoing investigation – and the White House counsel's office has disclosed some information in a series of written statements. Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, also released a statement over the weekend explaining how the search process had worked.
But the White House has also left some key questions unanswered, including about the nature of the documents found and why it did not inform the public sooner.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and a spokesperson for the White House counsel's office, Ian Sams, have repeatedly referred reporters' questions to the Justice Department, which itself has not shared much information.
"When it comes to the Department of Justice, when it comes to legal matters, when it comes to legal issues, we have been very clear that we are not going to comment, we are not going to politically interfere," Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing Tuesday. "And that continues with this, also -- this legal issue."
The president himself has addressed the topic just twice since a news report on Jan. 9 made public the fact that documents marked classified had been found at an office he used after he left the vice presidency.
Biden answered one question about the matter the next day. Then, after the White House disclosed more documents had been found, on Thursday he responded to a reporter who asked about that new batch.
On Tuesday, face-to-face with reporters at an Oval Office meeting with the prime minister of the Netherlands, Biden appeared to smile as a reporter shouted whether he would commit to speaking with the special counsel. But he did not otherwise respond.
Meanwhile, the National Archives has told the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee that before the Archives can turn over records to the panel that the Justice Department needs to consult with the newly appointed special counsel "to assess whether information can be released without interfering" in the investigation into classified documents discovered at the Penn Biden Center and at Biden's Wilmington home.
Acting Archivist Debra Wall said in a letter to Rep. James Comer that a search had begun for the information the committee requested relating to the Biden documents and advised the Archives would need to consult with DOJ on the release of any such records.
