Documents with classified markings from U.S. President Joe Biden’s time as vice-president were found at his home in Delaware, the White House said Thursday, days after it was disclosed that sensitive documents were also found at the office of his former Washington institute.
Richard Sauber, a special counsel to the president, said after the initial documents were found by Biden’s personal lawyers, they examined other locations where records might have been shipped after Biden left the vice-presidency in 2017.
Sauber said a “small number” of documents with classified markings were found in a storage space in Biden’s garage in Wilmington, with one document being located in an adjacent room.
Sauber said the Department of Justice was “immediately notified” after the documents were found and that department lawyers took custody of the records.
Earlier this week, the White House confirmed that the department was reviewing “a small number of documents with classified markings” at the Penn Biden Center in Washington. Biden kept an office there after he left the vice-presidency in 2017 until shortly before he launched his presidential campaign in 2019.
Biden’s lawyers had discovered the material at the offices of the Penn Biden Center and then immediately called the National Archives about the discovery, the White House said.
Key questions remain, including the content and exact number of records, how they arrived at the centre and why they stayed there.
Biden says garage was locked
Biden has said he was “surprised to learn that there are any government records that were taken there to that office” but his lawyers “did what they should have” when they immediately called the National Archives.
He reiterated that stance on Thursday after making short remarks on the latest inflation report. He acknowledged that a classified record was found in his “personal library,” and said the White House would co-operate fully with any probe.
The U.S. Justice Department is reviewing a batch of potentially classified documents found inside an office previously used by U.S. President Joe Biden. While the situation is bad, one analyst says it’s not comparable to Donald Trump’s handling of classified material.
With respect to the garage, Biden said it was locked.
Some Republicans have been angered that the discovery of documents at the Washington office was known before the midterm elections but not disclosed to the public.
The Justice Department was already investigating former president Donald Trump over the retention of top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, which has resulted in a grand jury investigation and has been handed over to a special counsel.
Democrats in recent days have rejected the assertion by Republicans that there’s been a double standard in the handling of the cases. Republicans have characterized the search at the Trump estate in August as a “raid,” though a federal judge signed off on a search warrant and Secret Service agents at the Florida residence were reportedly advised ahead of the search.
House Republicans have promised to investigate what they call the “weaponization” of the federal government, with a particular focus on the FBI and the IRS. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Thursday it was an example of “treating law differently based upon your political beliefs.”
The Biden revelations could complicate the Justice Department’s consideration of whether to bring charges against Trump.
Trump representatives for months resisted requests by the National Archives to return all documents. Even after Justice Department officials last spring issued a subpoena for classified records and visited Mar-a-Lago, associates of the former president failed to provide the entire batch of documents, it has been alleged by federal officials.
Several Republicans have called for a special counsel, but that role is typically only seen when criminal wrongdoing is suspected. In cases involving officials in the past where documents were returned to the Archives belatedly, not all led to a criminal probe.
It has been reported by multiple U.S. media outlets that a federal attorney, previously appointed by Trump, is reviewing the Biden matter.
Attorney General Merrick Garland is to scheduled to make a rare public statement at 1:15 p.m. ET, though the Justice Department had not yet confirmed the subject matter.