EXPLAINER: The What, Why, How Much and How Often Behind Classified Information in the U.S.

Leaders in the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives have seized on reports that classified documents were found at President Joe Bidens personal residence and at a university think tank tied to him, eager to equate the revelations with the ongoing federal investigation into highly sensitive documents that former President Donald Trump had at his Mar-a-Lago compound.

Both instances led the Justice Department to launch special counsel investigations to establish the circumstances behind the taking and the returning of the materials but not before opponents on each side of the political spectrum sought to use the discoveries as proof of wrongdoing.

Biden supporters insist that the investigations will show that the president, unlike his predecessor, followed procedures for addressing what was an accidental and not uncommon mishandling of classified documents, unlike Trump and his surrogates, who have sought to frame the entire episode as evidence of a government-sponsored smear campaign.