Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023 ((rezonodwes.com)) — Six more documents, including classified files, were found in President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware following Justice Department officials searched the residence Friday, a said the president’s personal lawyer on Saturday.
According to a White House official and a source familiar with the matter, the White House, not the Justice Department, initiated the search.
The documents at Mr. Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, appear to be related to his tenure as vice president as well as his time in the United States Senate. They were discovered following Mr. Biden’s attorney offered full access to the premises as part of the department’s investigation into possession of classified documents, said Bob Bauer, Mr. Biden’s personal attorney, in a press release.
“The Department of Justice has taken possession of material it believes to be relevant to its investigation, including six items consisting of documents bearing classification marks and related material, some of which dates from the time the president was in the Senate and others from his term as vice president,” Mr. Bauer said.
He added that the department had “full access” to Mr. Biden’s home, “including personal handwritten notes, files, papers, binders, keepsakes, to-do lists, calendars and reminders going back for decades”.
Investigators spent regarding 1 p.m. at the president’s personal residence on Friday, White House officials and Biden’s attorney said.
Joseph D. Fitzpatrick, assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said FBI agents conducted the search of Mr. Biden’s personal property.
“The FBI conducted a planned and consensual search of the president’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday,” he said.
The White House announced earlier this month that Mr. Biden’s lawyers had discovered a “small number” of classified documents in a locked cupboard as they left the offices of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, DC, November 2. NBC News has learned that one of the files was marked Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information, the highest level of classification.
Mr. Biden’s aides uncovered an additional batch of classified documents that Richard Sauber, the president’s special adviser, said were in Mr. Biden’s garage in Wilmington and one of the adjoining rooms in the house.
“His team voluntarily and quickly disclosed the initial discovery to the Archives. [nationales] and subsequent findings to the Department of Justice, as per protocol,” Sauber said in a statement Saturday.
After an initial investigation by the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, the Justice Department said it was designating a special counsel to investigate how Biden possessed sensitive documents at locations unauthorized.
The findings came a day following federal investigators announced they had recovered more than 300 classified files from former President Donald Trump.
After Donald Trump left office in 2021, the National Archives said it realized records related to his presidency were missing. The Archives said Trump sent them 15 boxes of documents containing 25 items labeled top secret.