The White House disclosed on Saturday that lawyers for President Joe Biden discovered more secret documents at his house in Wilmington, Delaware than previously known, news agency Associated Press (AP) reported.
A total of six pages of classified documents were discovered during a search of Biden’s private library, according to White House lawyer Richard Sauber. The White House initially stated that only one document was discovered, the report said.
The latest disclosure follows the discovery of records from Biden’s stint as vice president in his garage in December and at his former offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington in November.
The suspected mishandling of classified documents and official records by the Obama administration is being investigated by Robert Hur, a former US attorney who was designated as a special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday.
According to Sauber, Biden’s personal lawyers, who do not have security clearances, halted their search after seeing the first page on Wednesday evening. Sauber discovered the remaining evidence Thursday while assisting the Department of Justice in retrieving it, as stated in the report.
“Five additional pages with classification markings were discovered among the material with it while I was transferring it to the DOJ officials who accompanied me,” Sauber added. “The DOJ officials with me immediately took possession of them,” as per the report.
The White House, according to Sauber, was “confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake,” the report said.
Sauber’s statement didn’t explain why the White House waited two days to release an updated tally of classified documents data. The White House is already under fire for taking more than two months to disclose the discovery of the first batch of records at Biden’s office, according to the report.
When asked if Biden could ensure that additional classified documents would not be discovered in a subsequent search, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday, “You should assume that it’s been completed, yes.”
Sauber stated again on Saturday that the White House will assist Hur’s inquiry, the report added.
According to Bob Bauer, the president’s personal lawyer, his legal team “attempted to balance the importance of public transparency where appropriate with the established norms and limitations necessary to protect the integrity of the investigation,” the report said.
Before bringing criminal charges in cases involving the misuse of secret material, the Justice Department has traditionally imposed a high legal threshold, requiring that someone intend to breach the law rather than simply being careless or irresponsible. It is a crime to “knowingly” remove classified papers and store them in an unauthorised manner, according to the fundamental laws controlling the illegal removal and preservation of classified documents.
(With Inputs From Associated Press)
