Joe Biden: White House says six more classified documents found in search of US president’s home
Six further documents containing classification markings have been found at US President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware, his lawyer has said.
Bob Bauer said the Justice Department conducted the search at Mr Biden‘s Wilmington residence on Friday, which he said lasted approximately 13 hours.
In a statement, Mr Bauer said the Justice Department “took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the president’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as vice president”.
The prosecutors also “took for further review personally handwritten notes from the vice-presidential years”, he added.
Neither Mr Biden nor first lady Jill Biden were present throughout the duration of the search at their home.
Earlier this month, Mr Biden’s legal team acknowledged it had found classified documents relating to his time as vice-president in the Obama administration at his home, including some in his garage.
Aides previously found another batch of classified documents at his residence, and at a Washington think-tank he was associated with.
A few days later, Mr Biden’s lawyers said five additional pages with classified markings were found at the president’s home in Delaware, after previously saying only a single page had been found.
White House lawyer Richard Sauber said in a statement that a total of six pages of classified documents were discovered during a search of the president’s private library.
The apparent mishandling of classified documents and official records from the Obama administration is under investigation by a former US attorney, Robert Hur, who was appointed as a special counsel this month by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Mr Sauber reiterated that the White House would cooperate with Mr Hur’s investigation.
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The discoveries have trickled out over the past few weeks, causing concern among the president’s allies that his office does not have a handle on the growing scandal.
Republicans have sought to compare the investigation of Mr Biden’s handling of classified documents to the ongoing probe into how former president Donald Trump handled classified documents after his presidency.
The White House, however, previously said the two cases are different because Mr Biden’s team has cooperated with authorities in their probe and turned over documents, while Mr Trump had resisted doing so until an FBI search at his Florida home.
The Department of Justice historically imposes a high legal bar before bringing criminal charges in cases involving the mishandling of classified information, with a requirement that someone intended to break the law as opposed to being merely careless or negligent in doing so.
