拜登表示不知在智库发现的机密文件内容，共和党议员发起调查
拜登在墨西哥城与墨西哥总统安德列斯·曼努埃尔·洛佩斯·奥夫拉多尔(Andrés Manuel López Obrador)和加拿大总理贾斯汀·特鲁多(Justin Trudeau)会晤后与两位领导人一道举行记者会时说：“我的律师没有建议我问它们是什么文件。我交出了箱子——他们交出了箱子，给了档案局，我们正在全面配合审议，我希望审议将很快完成，那时会有更多细节。”
星期一，拜登的私人律师披露说，去年11月，在宾大拜登外交与全球接触中心(Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement)的办公室发现了一批文件，其中有些是机密文件。这个华盛顿智库以拜登命名，并与宾夕法尼亚大学有关。白宫说，拜登在2017年至2020年之间有时用过那里的办公室。
共和党议员发起调查
共和党议员已经对此事发起了调查。
即将出任众议院情报委员会主席的麦克·特纳(Mike Turner)星期二(1月10日)致函国家情报总监埃夫丽尔·海恩斯(Avril Haines)，要求展开“即刻审议和损失评估”。
特纳说，发现这些文件有可能让拜登违反保护国家安全的法律，包括《反间谍法》(Espionage Act)和《总统档案法》(Presidential Records Act)。美国司法部去年在突击搜查前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)在佛罗里达州海湖庄园(Mar-a-Lago)的住宅时，便援引这两项法律作为依据。特朗普曾经数月拒绝国家档案局提出的交出据怀疑由他拥有的机密文件的请求，直到联邦调查局去年8月进行了一次搜查，发现了几百份文件，其中几十份为绝密。
特朗普星期一晚间在真相社交(Truth Social)平台上问道：“联调局什么时候突击搜查乔·拜登的很多住宅、甚至也许是白宫呢？这些文件绝对没有解密。”
总统特别法律顾问理查德·索伯(Richard Sauber)说，他们立即通知了国家档案局。该机构负责处理这类总统文件。
索伯在声明中说：“白宫正就发现看来是奥巴马-拜登行政当局的记录，包括少量有机密标识的文件一事与国家档案局和司法部合作。”
索伯说，律师们在收拾“存放在一个锁着的壁橱内”的档案，准备搬出办公室空间时，发现了这些文件，第二天早晨，国家档案局接管了这批材料。他说，拜登的律师正在努力确保“任何奥巴马-拜登行政当局的记录均由档案馆恰当持有”。
并不罕见
专注国家安全法律的律师马克·扎伊德(Mark Zaid)说，考虑到事情的性质，任何对机密材料的不当处理都会引起严重关切，但是这类事件并不罕见，一般会通过行政程序来处理。
“展开一次彻底的事实调查符合每个人的利益，而且应该能够帮助查明是否有任何人犯下过错，”扎伊德对美国之音(VOA)说。“此刻，似乎并没有证据显示拜登总统知道或者卷入涉案的记录，但是我们需要了解更多情况。”
司法部长梅里克·加兰德(Merrick Garland)已任命约翰·劳什(John Lausch)负责调查此事。他是特朗普任命的负责伊利诺伊北区的联邦检察官。但是，即使有了调查，白宫如今也处在一个难堪境地，必须要解释为什么拜登在批评特朗普的过犯时自己也可能做了同样的事情。
拜登去年9月在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻频道(CBS News)的《60分钟》(60 Minutes)节目采访时曾对“谁可以这么不负责任”提出质问，他还说，他严格遵守管理敏感材料的程序。
共和党人立即指出他们所看到的双重标准。
众议院多数党领袖史蒂夫·斯卡利斯(Steve Scalise)星期二对记者们说：“如果时任副总统的拜登带走了机密文件，多年持有它们，在他有这些机密文件的同时却批评前总统特朗普......我不由想知道为什么新闻界不问他做副总统时带走机密文件的同样问题，却只问特朗普总统呢？”
前联邦检察官和斯坦福大学刑事法教授大卫·A·斯科兰斯克(David A. Sklansky)说，拜登案与特朗普案“毫无可比性”。
“使海湖庄园的情况变得如此严重的并不是在那里发现了机密文件的问题，”斯科兰斯基对美国之音说。“问题是有关这些文件的阻挠和欺骗，而且一再妨碍政府收回这些文件的努力。本案并没有任何这样的证据。”
民主党议员皮特·阿圭拉(Pete Aguilar)称共和党人调查拜登总统的举动是“最精致的虚伪”。他说，在特朗普家中发现数百文件时，共和党人并没有认为调查是当务之急。
“拜登总统所做的是把此事披露给档案局，让执法部门知道，”他说。“这恰恰是你应当处理此事的方式。”
有线电视新闻网(CNN)报道说，在宾大拜登中心发现的机密文件包括美国情报机构的备忘录和简报材料，涵盖乌克兰、伊朗和英国等话题。白宫还没有证实这一说法。
司法部和联调局拒绝了美国之音的置评请求，劳什的办公室与国家情报总监办公室还没有对美国之音的询问做出答复。
original Link: https://www.voachinese.com/a/republicans-launch-inquiries-into-classifi…
$54M in Chinese gifts donated to UPenn, home of Biden Center
By Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein April 9, 2022 1:07pm
A government watchdog is demanding the US attorney probing Hunter Biden in Delaware investigate tens of millions in anonymous donations from China to the University of Pennsylvania, where an academic center is named for his father, President Biden.
The Ivy League college raked in a total of $54.6 million from 2014 through June 2019 in donations from China, including $23.1 million in anonymous gifts starting in 2016, according to public records.
Most of the anonymous donations came after the university announced in February 2017 that it would create the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Joe Biden, whose term as vice president had just ended, was to lead the center and was also named a professor at the university.
The center, which is located in Washington, DC, opened its doors in February 2018. Antony Blinken, whom Biden named as secretary of state, briefly served as its managing director.
The Ivy League university received $15.8 million in anonymous Chinese gifts that year, including one eye-popping $14.5 million donation in May 2018, records show.The flurry of donations may be related to first son Hunter Biden’s business interests in China, the National Legal and Policy Center, a Virginia-based watchdog, alleged in complaints sent in May and October 2020 to the Departments of Education and Justice.
Last week, the group asked US Attorney David Weiss to step in and investigate the Chinese largesse to the school as part of his federal tax probe of Hunter Biden.
“We’ve asked … Weiss to pursue the larger network of individuals and institutions who benefited from millions doled out by foreign interests connected to Hunter Biden’s work in China and Ukraine,” said Tom Anderson, director of the NLPC’s Government Integrity Project.
In its 12-page complaint, the watchdog cited a 2017 text found on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop that CEFC China Energy Co, one of the firms that Hunter Biden had a financial stake in, wanted to lobby politicians in the US but did not want to register under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, as required for all foreign lobbyists.
“We don’t want to have to register as foreign agents under the FCPA [sic] which … is much more expansive than people who should know choose not to know,” reads the May 1, 2017, text sent from Hunter Biden to his former business partner Tony Bobulinski.
A University of Pennsylvania spokesman denied any anonymous Chinese money had gone to the center.
“The Penn Biden Center has never solicited or received any gifts from any Chinese or other foreign entity. In fact, the University has never solicited any gifts for the Center,” Stephen MacCarthy said.
Although the center’s mission statement says it does not accept contributions, MacCarthy contended that it had received a combined $1,100 in three unsolicited gifts from two donors since 2017, but said both donors are Americans.
He would not disclose the identity of the donors or say how the massive, anonymous Chinese funds were used at the school.
After Joe Biden was elected president in 2020, the center said it would operate “completely independent of the Biden administration.”
Other Ivy League colleges have raked in Chinese money, including Harvard, which got $75 million during the 2014-2019 period, and Yale, which received $43.5 million, records show.
The Education Department opened investigations in 2020 into whether Harvard and Yale were meeting reporting requirements for foreign cash.
original Link: https://nypost.com/2022/04/09/54m-in-chinese-gifts-donated-to-upenn-hom…