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Donald Trump has used the publicity surrounding his indictment on 37 federal charges to attack President Joe Biden several times over, alleging the president had hoarded boxes of documents in Delaware.
Biden has, indeed, been investigated for possession of classified documents after papers were found at offices of the Penn Biden Center of the University of Pennsylvania in November last year.
Among the more unusual remarks that Trump made toward the president was one allegation that Biden had stored classified documents in Chinatown.
The Claim
During his post-arraignment speech in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, Donald Trump said: "Many of Biden's classified documents were in Chinatown, D.C. Chinatown, which is shocking concerning his family receives so much money from China.
"I wonder how many times the friends of ours from China review those documents, Chinatown DC."
The Facts
After classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center, FBI officials searched Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware, and a vacation home in Rehoboth, Delaware.
Investigators found classified papers at the property in Wilmington, stored in various locations around the house including the garage.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel Robert Hur to investigate the appearance of classified documents at Biden's home and former D.C. office on January 12.
Little is known about the state of Hur's investigation, nor the circumstances that resulted in Biden still being in possession of the classified materials.
The specific claim about document storage in Chinatown stands out somewhat among those Trump has made recently.
It appears to have come from a former Joe Biden staffer, Kathy Chung, who served as an assistant to Joe Biden when he was vice-president.
A February 2023 article by The Washington Post reported that after Biden left the White House as vice president, Chung helped Biden move boxes to a government-funded transition office.
Among these boxes were the classified documents discovered at the Penn Biden Center last year. After the transition office, they were taken to a temporary location that the Penn Biden Center was leasing in Chinatown.
This was later confirmed in an interview that Chung gave to the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer.
So, yes, it appears that it's true that documents were moved into an office in Chinatown temporarily before they were moved to the Penn Biden Center.
What else one might infer from that seems fairly limited. We don't know how the documents were stored necessarily and the claims that Trump made about Chinese collusion appear to be entirely speculative.
However, the claim that some documents were stored in Chinatown D.C. appears to be true.
After papers were found at the Penn Biden Center, Biden said: "I was briefed about this discovery and was surprised to learn there were any government records that were taken there to that office.
"I don't know what's in the documents, my lawyers have not suggested I ask what documents they were.
"They've turned over the boxes to the [National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)], and we're cooperating fully."
In an Oversight Committee interview, leaked by Democratic staff, Chung said she did not review or study the materials unpacked from the boxes and repeatedly stated that she did not know or believe there were classified documents.
A letter sent to the Committee on behalf of its Democratic members stated: "Ms. Chung stated that she was conscientious about tracking records, including classified records, during her tenure in Vice President Biden's White House office, and that during the presidential transition process, she and others worked quickly to pack up the office and did not review individual documents.
"Ms. Chung also confirmed that no one in the Biden family instructed her on what to pack, including classified documents, or was involved in the packing process."
Shaobin Zheng, writing in the American Historical Association's "Perspectives on History" magazine in 2017, said Washington D.C.'s Chinatown "was once home to thousands of Chinese immigrants. Today, mostly as a result of development and gentrification, fewer than 300 Chinese Americans live in the neighborhood."
Newsweek has contacted the White House and a representative of Donald Trump for comment.
The Ruling
True.
According to testimony from a former Biden staffer, after Biden left the White House in 2016, a number of boxes containing documents were moved to a transitory location in Chinatown before they were taken to Penn Biden Center.
Investigators later found that the boxes at the Penn Biden Center contained classified documents.
The staffer involved said that she did not believe there were classified documents in the boxes and was "conscientious" about tracking records.
The location in Chinatown, leased by the Penn Biden Center, was only meant as a temporary measure while the Penn Biden Center was being built. The other claims Trump has made about the documents' movement and exposure to the Chinese government appear to be speculative at best.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
About the writer
Tom Norton is Newsweek's Fact Check reporter, based in London. His focus is reporting on misinformation and misleading information in ... Read more