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 on Saturday night.

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, according to his lawyer, Bob Bauer.

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 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 were present during the search, the lawyer said.

Mr Biden is in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for the weekend.

Some classified government records were discovered this month at Mr Biden’s Wilmington residence.

Others were discovered in November at a private office he maintained at a Washington, D.C., think tank after ending his tenure as vice president in the Obama administration in 2017.

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, who was appointed during the process, 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.

The latest search was the first time federal law enforcement authorities have conducted a search for government documents at Mr Biden’s private addresses, 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 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 he believed the matter will be resolved. REUTERS