5 more classified documents found at Biden’s Delaware home, White House lawyer says
A third batch of classified documents was found at President Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware, the president’s attorneys announced Saturday.
Special counsel to the president Richard Sauber disclosed in a statement that five additional pages of documents with classified markings were found at Biden’s home Thursday evening, making a total of six classified documents retrieved from there.
Sauber explained that when Biden’s personal attorneys identified one classified document at Biden’s home on Wednesday, they ‘immediately’ stopped searching for additional documents because they lacked the security clearances necessary to view those materials.
‘Because I have a security clearance, I went to Wilmington Thursday evening to facilitate providing the document the President’s personal counsel found on Wednesday to the Justice Department,’ Sauber said. ‘While I was transferring it to the DOJ officials who accompanied me, five additional pages with classification markings were discovered among the material with it, for a total of six pages. The DOJ officials with me immediately took possession of them.’
Additional classified documents were found in Biden’s garage and at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. The discoveries have led to accusations from Republicans that Biden ‘mishandled’ classified materials in the same way that former President Donald Trump was accused of doing, although Democrats dispute this comparison.
Last year, the FBI executed a search and seizure at Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago and retrieved approximately 300 documents with classified markings – some ‘top secret’ – which the former president had not turned over to the National Archives, as required by law. At the time, Biden had said Trump had been ‘irresponsible.’ Trump’s handling of classified documents is being investigated by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland after the former president announced his candidacy for the White House in 2024.
On Monday, the Biden White House revealed for the first time that on Nov. 2, 2022, the president’s personal lawyers were packing files from his old office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global engagement, a think tank founded in 2018 by the University of Pennsylvania, when they discovered documents with classified markings in a ‘locked closet’ dated from the time Biden served as vice-president under President Obama. The classified materials were immediately turned over to the National Archives, the White House said.
On Nov. 4, the National Archives inspector general informed the Department of Justice of the discovery and Garland appointed U.S. Attorney John Lausch to begin an initial investigation.
Then in December, Biden’s personal attorney Robert Bauer informed Lausch that a second set of documents had been found in the garage of Biden’s private home in Wilmington, Del. Those documents were also turned over to DOJ.
On Wednesday, Biden’s attorneys found one more classified document at his Wilmington residence, and Sauber discovered the five latest documents on Thursday. That same day, Garland tapped Robert K. Hur, a former U.S. attorney, to serve as special counsel to investigate Biden’s handling of classified materials.
‘I am confident that Mr. Hur will carry out his responsibility in an even-handed and urgent manner and in accordance with the highest traditions of this department,’ Garland stated.
Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee will conduct its own investigation under the leadership of Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
‘We are conducting oversight of the Justice Department’s actions with respect to former Vice President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, including the apparently unauthorized possession of classified material at a Washington, D.C., private office and in the garage of his Wilmington, Delaware, residence,’ Jordan and Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., wrote in a letter sent Friday to Garland.
‘On January 12, 2023, you appointed Robert Hur as Special Counsel to investigate these matters,’ they wrote. ‘The circumstances of this appointment raise fundamental oversight questions that the Committee routinely examines. We expect your complete cooperation with our inquiry.’
Sauber emphasized that Biden’s lawyers have ‘acted immediately and voluntarily’ to turn over all classified materials to the Justice Department.
‘We have now publicly released specific details about the documents identified, how they were identified, and where they were found. The appointment of the Special Counsel in this matter this week means we will now refer specific questions to the Special Counsel’s office moving forward,’ Sauber said.
‘As I said Thursday, the White House will cooperate with the newly-appointed Special Counsel,’ he added.
Fox News’ Kelly Laco contributed to this report.