WASHINGTON — The second set of classified documents from President Biden’s tenure as vice president have been discovered in a vault in the garage of his home in Wilmington, Del., a top White House attorney said on Tuesday. Year.
The Times reports on Wednesday that this second set of documents was found at a location “related” to Mr. Biden. On Thursday, the White House statement provided further details by specifying that the location was his private residence, where he typically spends weekends.
The White House statement, by Richard Sauber, Biden’s special adviser, did not answer basic questions about the contents of the documents, who packaged them and whether anyone had access to them after it was released. whether he leaves office or not. It also does not say when the second batch was found.
The statement comes after the White House admitted this week that an earlier batch was discovered on November 2 in the office cubicle at a consulting firm Mr. Biden used after leaving office. vice president.
The statement added that Biden’s team immediately notified the Justice Department and arranged for the agency to take possession of the documents.
Sauber said Biden’s team also searched the home the president owns in Rehoboth Beach, Del., but found no documents stored there.
On Tuesday, Mr. Biden told reporters in Mexico City that he was “surprised” to learn in the fall that his attorneys had find secret government documents at his former office at the Penn Biden Center for Global Affairs and Engagement.
He said his staff had cooperated fully with the National Archives and the Department of Justice, but did not mention documents later found in Delaware.
Mr. Biden’s lawyers discovered “a small number” of classified documents in his former office at a Washington think tank last fall, the White House said on Monday, prompting the Justice Department must take a close look at the situation to determine how to proceed.
The investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter, is one of a kind aimed at helping Attorney General Merrick B. Garland decide whether to appoint a special prosecutor, much like the investigation into former President Donald J. Trump hoards sensitive documents and doesn’t return them all.
According to the White House, the first batch of documents found in Biden’s former office were found by his personal attorneys in November, while they were packing files at the Washington office.
Officials did not describe exactly how many documents were involved, what type of information they included or how classified they were. Mr. Biden’s attorneys did not provide details about the contents of documents found in the new batch.
