FBI Searched Biden Home, Found More Classified Documents

WASHINGTON — The U.S. The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday and found six additional documents with classified markings and some of his notes, according to the president’s lawyer on Saturday.

According to Bob Bauer, the president’s lawyer, the search of the entire premises took nearly 13 hours. The FBI seized documents from Biden’s time in the Senate and vice presidency, while the notes were from his time as vice president. As the Justice Department reviews the records, the level of classification and whether they remained classified took time to be cleared.

The search happened after Biden’s lawyers found six classified documents from his time as vice president in the president’s home library, and almost three months after lawyers found a small number of classified records in his old offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington.

It came a day after Biden said, “there’s no there there” on the document revelations, which have become a political headache for the president and complicated the Justice Department’s investigation into Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents and official records after he left office.

“We discovered a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place,” Biden told reporters during a tour of storm damage in California. “We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department.”

Biden Is Cooperating Fully With The Investigation

Biden stated that he was “fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved as soon as possible.”

Jill Biden was not present when the president and first lady searched the residence. They were staying at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for the weekend.

It remains to be seen whether federal officials will conduct additional searches in other locations. Biden’s lawyers have already looked through his Rehoboth Beach home and said they didn’t find any official papers or secret records.

According to Bauer, the FBI requested that the White House not comment on the search before it took place and that Biden’s personal and White House attorneys be present. He said the FBI had “full access to the President’s home, including handwritten notes, files, papers, binders, memorabilia, to-do lists, schedules, and reminders dating back decades.”

President Committed To Handling This With Responsibility

He said that the Justice Department “took possession of materials it thought were relevant to its investigation.” These included six items made up of classified documents and other materials, some from when the President was in the Senate and some from when he was Vice President.

Former Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert Hur has been appointed as a special counsel to investigate any potential wrongdoing concerning the Biden documents by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“From the start, the President has been committed to handling this responsibly because he takes it seriously,” White House lawyer Richard Sauber said on Saturday. “The President’s lawyers and the White House Counsel’s Office will continue to work with the DOJ and the Special Counsel to ensure that this process proceeds as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

The discovery of the Biden documents and the investigation into Trump, which is in the hands of special counsel Jack Smith, are vastly different. According to the Justice Department, when Trump left the White House in early 2021, he took hundreds of classified records with him and refused to return them to the government for months. Biden has cooperated with the DOJ investigation at every turn, though questions about his public transparency remain.

SOURCE – (AP)