FBI More Classified Documents Discovered at Presidential Mansion in Wilmington, Delaware Joe Biden During Friday’s nearly 13-hour consensual search, his personal attorney and prosecutors said Saturday night.
It’s the fourth time since November that classified records and materials have been found at Biden’s personal address.
His personal attorney, Bob Bauer, said in a statement that the Department of Justice had seized “six items of classified documents and related material.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Joseph D. Fitzpatrick, told NBC News:
Bauer said there is also an item dated from Biden’s Senate days, when he represented Delaware from 1973 to 2009. Also, some of the items are from 2009 to 2017 when he was Vice President in the Obama administration.
In addition to those records, FBI agents who did not have a search warrant also seized several handwritten notes by Biden as vice president, according to attorneys and the White House.
Neither Mr. Biden nor First Lady Jill Biden were present at the investigation, according to Presidential Special Counsel Richard Sauber.
Item joins another Undisclosed number of secret government records It was previously discovered by the president’s attorneys.
A handful of classified records were first uncovered by Biden’s lawyers on Nov. 2 in a private office that Biden kept at a Washington, D.C. think tank after he ended his term as vice president in the Obama administration in 2017. Discovered.
The White House only disclosed its findings on January 9.
On December 20th, a handful of classified records were found in the garage of Biden’s Wilmington home.
Then, on January 11th, a page of classified material was found at the Wilmington mansion. Then, the next day, five more pages of classified records were found in a room adjacent to Biden’s garage when DOJ officials visited there to obtain one of his. I found this page the other day.
The White House said when the president’s attorneys found the earlier documents, they immediately notified the National Archives and Records Administration and the Justice Department.
Friday’s raid was the first public disclosure that federal law enforcement officials searched Biden’s personal address for government documents.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel earlier this month to investigate Biden’s retention of government records after he became vice president.
former president donald trump He is under criminal investigation by another special counsel for removing hundreds of classified records and other government documents from the White House when he resigned as president. Trump has also been accused of obstructing justice by obstructing government officials’ efforts to retrieve the documents.
In early August, the FBI raided Trump’s home at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, and found thousands of pages of government records. In that case, the FBI had a search warrant.
By law, presidents and vice presidents must return government documents to the National Archives when they leave office.
Biden and the White House have been criticized for the two-month delay in disclosing the discovery of the first batch of classified documents at the Penn-Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington.
Its first discovery was made six days before the midterm elections. At this time, the balance of party control in both houses of Congress was at stake.
Critics also question why searches of other private property maintained by the president were not conducted until the White House made the initial findings public.
Bauer said in a statement on Saturday that the president’s legal team had offered to provide “rapid access” to Biden’s private residence, adding, “The Department of Justice sought the vice president’s records and possible classified material. We will be able to survey the entire site,” he said.
He said the offer was made “in order to move the process forward as quickly as possible.”
“The DOJ has requested that the investigation not be pre-disclosed, following standard procedure, and has agreed to cooperate,” Bauer said.
“The Department of Justice has completed a thorough review of all materials at President Wilmington’s home,” he said Friday.
“We started around 9:45 a.m. and finished around 10:30 p.m., covering all the work, living and storage spaces in the house,” says Bauer. “By agreement with the DOJ, representatives from both the Personal Legal Team and the White House Attorney’s Office were present.”
Officials had “full access to the president’s home,” including “personally handwritten notes, files, papers, binders, memorabilia, to-do lists, schedules, and decades-old reminders.” .
“DOJ obtained materials it deemed to be within the scope of its investigation, including six items of classified-marked documents and related materials, some of which were from the Senate Presidency. Some were from his tenure as vice president,” Bauer said.
“The Justice Department also took personal handwritten notes from his time as vice president for further consideration.”
“As stated in a statement issued on January 14, the attorneys noted the need for established norms and limits to protect the integrity of investigations and the importance of public transparency where appropriate. I’ve been trying to strike a balance.
“We will continue to do so for the duration of our collaboration with the DOJ,” Bauer said.
Biden’s White House attorney, Sauber, said in a statement to himself, “The president and his team are working to ensure that the Justice Department and special counsel have what they need to conduct a thorough investigation. We are working on it quickly,” he said.
“From the beginning, the president has promised to handle this responsibly because he takes it seriously,” Sauber said.
