According to a lawyer, during a fresh search of President Joe Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware, American officials found six additional classified documents.
In a statement released on Saturday, the president’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, claimed that some of the secret documents and “surrounding materials” came from Biden’s time serving as a senator from Delaware in the US Senate from 1973 to 2009.
The vice president served in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2017, according to other papers, according to Bauer.
It wasn’t immediately clear how secret they were or if they still were.
According to Bauer, the Department of Justice (DOJ) conducted a search on Friday that lasted more than 13 hours. It happened more than a week after Biden’s attorneys discovered six additional classified documents from his time serving as vice president in the president’s home library and almost three months after they discovered a small number of classified documents at his former workplace at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC.
It came a day after Biden insisted that “there’s no there there” regarding the document revelations, which have complicated the DOJ’s investigation into former President Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents and official records after he left office and caused the president political headaches.
“To allow DOJ to conduct a search of the full premises for potential vice-presidential records and potential classified information,” Bauer said, the president gave access to “his home.”
The lawyer said that neither Biden nor his wife were present at the time of the search. For the weekend, they were in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
It is unclear if federal authorities will conduct any other searches at other sites. In a prior investigation of the Rehoboth Beach home, Biden’s private attorneys claimed they had not discovered any official papers or sensitive information.
Before the search on Friday took place, the White House was asked by the DOJ not to speak, according to Bauer, who also noted that Biden’s personal counsel and White House attorneys were present. “The DOJ had full access to the President’s house, including personally handwritten notes, files, papers, binders, memorabilia, to-do lists, timetables, and reminders stretching back decades,” he continued.
The DOJ “took possession of materials it considered within the scope of its inquiry, including six things consisting of documents with classified markings and surrounding materials, some from the President’s service in the Senate and some from his stint as Vice President,” he continued.
Additionally, Biden’s handwritten notes during his time serving as vice president were taken by the DOJ.
The search on Friday demonstrates how quickly the investigation into the secret materials found in Biden’s hands is progressing.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland designated a special counsel to look into the situation this month.
Robert Hur, a special counsel appointed during the procedure, is looking into how the president and his staff handled secret documents from the Obama administration that were recently discovered in Biden’s personal possession.
According to the White House, all of the documents found before the DOJ search on Friday were located by Biden’s attorneys. According to information made available to the public, the most recent search was the first time that federal law enforcement officials searched Biden’s home addresses for official documents.
Republicans have drawn comparisons between the investigation and the current inquiry into Trump’s handling of sensitive documents after he took office.
The Biden team cooperated with investigators and provided over those papers, according to the White House.
Up until an FBI search of Trump’s Florida club in August, he resisted doing so.
The discovery of classified documents at Biden’s former workplace was not publicly disclosed prior to the midterm elections, and Biden said he has “no regrets” about it. He also expressed confidence that the situation will be resolved.
