Classified Documents Found at Biden’s Delaware Home
President’s aides found small number of records in Wilmington residence garage
WASHINGTON—President Biden’s aides found an additional small number of classified records after searching his residences in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Del., Richard Sauber, Mr. Biden’s lawyer, said in a statement Thursday.
“All but one of these documents were found in storage space in the President’s Wilmington residence garage,” Mr. Sauber said. “One document consisting of one page was discovered among stored materials in an adjacent room. No documents were found in the Rehoboth Beach residence.”
The discovery of the additional batch, which The Wall Street Journal and others reported on Wednesday but hadn’t been confirmed by the White House, came after documents with classified markings were located at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, the president’s Washington-based think tank, on Nov. 2.
The search was done in coordination with the Justice Department and the lawyers completed the review Wednesday, Mr. Sauber said.
Aides searched locations where Mr. Biden’s documents from his tenure as vice president might have been shipped during the transition in 2017, Mr. Sauber said, adding that the White House would continue to cooperate with the review under way by the Justice Department.
Asked about the discovery of the latest batch of documents on Thursday, Mr. Biden said the documents had been in a locked garage with his Corvette sports car. “It’s not like they’re sitting out in the streets,” he said.
After reading language similar to his lawyer’s statement from the podium, the president said, “We’re going to see all this unfold,” adding, “I’m confident.”
The discovery of another set of classified documents is likely to intensify the political pressure on the president as the Justice Department determines how to handle the classified documents seized in August from the Mar-a-Lago residence of former President Donald Trump, who has joined fellow Republicans in accusing Mr. Biden of hypocrisy on the issue.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that Mr. Biden’s lawyers did “the right thing” by immediately turning over the documents found in November to the National Archives.
Mr. Biden on Tuesday said during a press conference in Mexico he was briefed about the incident and was “surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office.” The president said he doesn’t know and hasn’t asked what the documents contain.
Following a CBS News report, the White House on Monday confirmed that Mr. Biden’s personal attorneys discovered the classified materials at the center more than two months earlier, on Nov. 2, and turned them over to the National Archives the following day.