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Biden aides have discovered more pages of Obama-era classified documents at the president's Wilmington residence, White House says

Jan 15, 2023, 02:08 IST
Business Insider
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on preserving and protecting Democracy at Union Station on November 2, 2022 in Washington, DC.Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images
  • More Obama-era classified documents were found at President Biden's Wilmington home, per The Times.
  • The White House on Saturday announced that five additional pages were found on Thursday.
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Aides to President Joe Biden have discovered additional pages of classified documents at the commander-in-chief's home in Wilmington, Delaware, according to The New York Times.

Richard Sauber, the special counsel to the president, said in a statement on Saturday that five more pages of classified information were found on Thursday by the president's personal attorneys — in addition to a document found in the president's Wilmington home on Wednesday and other documents that were located in December in the president's garage and an adjacent room.

"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's statement read. "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."

"The President's lawyers have acted immediately and voluntarily to provide the Penn Biden documents to the Archives and the Wilmington documents to DOJ. We have now publicly released specific details about the documents identified, how they were identified, and where they were found," he continued to say. "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. As I said Thursday, the White House will cooperate with the newly-appointed Special Counsel."

The discovery on Thursday brings the total number of documents found this week to six pages.

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A first batch of documents from the administration of President Barack Obama, where Biden served as vice president, was discovered at the now-president's former office in Washington, DC. The onetime office — which Biden used after January 2017 and before the 2020 presidential election — is located at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a think tank founded by the University of Pennsylvania in 2018.

The files discovered at the Penn Biden Center were turned over to the National Archives.

On Thursday, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel — former United States attorney Robert Hur — to look into whether any laws were violated regarding the handling of the documents.

Biden during a Tuesday press conference told reporters that he and his attorneys were "cooperating fully" with the review by the Department of Justice and the National Archives.

The president stated at the time that he was "surprised" that any classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center, and said he was unaware of what the materials contained.

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"People know I take classified information seriously. I'm cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department's review," he said.

"They found some documents in a box in a locked cabinet, or at least a closet," he continued to say. "And as soon as they did, they realized there were several classified documents in that box. And they did what they should have done."

After more documents were discovered in his Delaware garage, Biden on Thursday dismissed a press question about the security of those files, noting the proximity of one of his prized vehicles.

"My Corvette's in a locked garage. Ok? So it's not like they're sitting out in the street," the president said at the time.

Republicans immediately seized on the issue not only to criticize the president over the discovery of the documents, but also to voice their continued frustration over the August 2022 raid at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. That search yielded roughly 11,000 documents, including over 100 files documents marked as classified.

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Garland in November appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to lead the investigation into Trump's retention of classified documents.

"When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?" Trump posted on the Truth Social platform earlier this week.

In Trump's case, he rebuffed efforts to return missing documents when contacted by the National Archives in 2021, and upon the agency's receipt of several documents, classified materials were found — which led to a probe into the potential mishandling of documents.

This story has been updated.

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