Topline
The Justice Department discovered additional documents including some with classified markings at President Joe Biden’s Wilmington residence following a thorough search of the property on Friday, the president’s lawyer said on Saturday night, a finding that will almost certainly draw more criticism and scrutiny from Republican lawmakers.
President Joe Biden speaks to members of the United States Conference of Mayors in the East Room of … [+]
Key Facts
The search was carried out by FBI agents after the President voluntarily offered access to the property, his personal lawyer Bob Bauer said.
Investigators seized at least six more items with classified markings—dating back to Biden’s eight-year stint as vice president and his tenure as a U.S. Senator—along with additional materials including several handwritten notes from Biden’s time as vice president.
The search was conducted over nearly 13 hours and investigators had full access to “all working, living and storage spaces in the home,” the president’s lawyer said.
Bauer added that voluntary access to the President’s home was offered to help move forward the investigation into the issue “as expeditiously as possible.”
U.S. Attorney Joseph Fitzpatrick confirmed the development later on Saturday saying the FBI had executed a “ planned, consensual search of the president’s residence in Wilmington.”
Key Background
Earlier this month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed U.S. Attorney Robert Hur as a special counsel to oversee the investigation into the handling of sensitive government records. Classified documents from Biden’s tenure as Vice President were first discovered at the Biden Penn Center in November. Additional such documents were also found in Biden’s Wilmington residence in December and January. In both instances, the president’s aides said the documents were returned immediately to the National Archives. Hur is expected to take charge of the investigation into the Biden documents soon but it is unclear how long such and investigation will take and if the DOJ believes that Biden broke any laws by having the documents in his possession. It is also unclear as to what impact this case will have on the ongoing investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. Republican lawmakers, however, have indicated that they will open their own investigation into Biden’s handling of the documents with the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee demanding several documents from the DOJ and Garland. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) has also demanded that the White House share a visitor logs for Biden’s Wilmington home.
Tangent
Although Friday’s search took place following a voluntary offer by Biden’s legal team, the involvement of the FBI and the search of the President’s personal residence will likely lead to comparisons with the search of former President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property last year. Biden’s staffers and even the president himself, however, have argued that his situation is very different from that of Trump by pointing to their cooperation with the Justice Department on the investigation. Despite this Trump and his aides have maintained that Biden was receiving favorable treatment from the DOJ with the former president even asking at one point “When is the F.B.I. going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?”
News Peg
Despite Trump’s claims, however, there appear to be a few key differences between the two cases with the search of Trump’s property taking place months after he and his team refused to comply with a subpoena demanding the records to be returned. Trump and his aides have also insisted there was no wrongdoing on the former President’s part as he had secretly declassified all documents in his possession. While a President does have broad powers to declassify government documents, they are required to follow a formal process to do so. There is no evidence that such a process was followed.
Further Reading
FBI searched Biden home, found items marked classified (Associated Press)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/01/22/doj-finds-more-classified-documents-following-search-of-bidens-wilmington-residence/