US Justice Dept finds 6 more classified documents in Biden home
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It was the first time authorities conducted a search for such documents at President Joe Biden's home.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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WASHINGTON - A new search of President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday by the US Justice Department led to the discovery of six more classified documents, a lawyer for the President said in a statement.
Some of the classified documents and “surrounding materials” dated from Mr Biden’s tenure in the US Senate, where he represented Delaware from 1973 to 2009, Mr Bob Bauer said on Saturday.
Other documents were from his tenure as vice-president in the Obama administration, from 2009 through 2017, Mr Bauer said.
The Department of Justice also took some notes that Mr Biden had personally handwritten as vice-president, according to the lawyer.
The President offered access “to his home to allow the DOJ to conduct a search of the entire premises for potential vice-presidential records and potential classified material”, Mr Bauer said.
Neither Mr Biden nor his wife was present during Friday’s search, the lawyer said.
Mr Biden was in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for the weekend.
Some classified government records were discovered this month
The search shows federal investigators are swiftly moving forward with the probe into classified documents found in Mr Biden’s possession.
This month, US Attorney-General Merrick Garland named a special counsel to probe the matter.
Special counsel Robert Hur is investigating how the President and his team handled Obama-era classified documents that were recently found in Mr Biden’s private possession.
Mr Biden’s lawyers found all the documents discovered before Friday’s search by the DOJ, according to the White House.
Friday’s search was the first carried out by federal law enforcement authorities at Mr Biden’s private addresses for government papers, according to information released publicly.
Republicans have compared the investigation to the ongoing probe into how former president Donald Trump handled classified documents after his presidency.
The White House has noted that Mr Biden’s team has cooperated with the authorities in their probe and had turned over those documents. Mr Trump resisted doing so until an FBI search in August at his Florida resort.
Mr Biden said on Thursday he has “no regrets” about not publicly disclosing before the mid-term elections the discovery of classified documents at his former office, and that he believed the matter will be resolved.
Americans are still separating Mr Biden’s conduct from Mr Trump, but most think the matter deserves scrutiny. An ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday showed that 77 per cent of Americans said Mr Trump handled classified documents inappropriately, while 64 per cent said the same about Mr Biden. REUTERS
