Among the classified documents from Joe Biden’s time as vice president discovered in a private office last fall are US intelligence memos and briefing materials that covered topics including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom, according to a source familiar with the matter.
A total of 10 documents with classification markings were found last year in Biden’s private academic office and they were dated between 2013 and 2016, according to the source.
The boxes with these classified records also contained personal Biden family documents, including materials about Beau Biden‘s funeral arrangements, the source told CNN.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned the US attorney in Chicago, a holdover from the Trump administration, to investigate the matter, CNN previously reported. Garland made this move after receiving a referral from the National Archives and Records Administration.
The documents were discovered on November 2, just six days before the midterm elections, but the matter only became public Monday due to news reports.
The source told CNN that a personal lawyer for Biden was closing out the downtown DC office that Biden used as part his work with the University of Pennsylvania. The lawyer saw an envelope with markings indicating they were the former vice president’s personal documents, opened the envelope and noticed there were classified documents inside. The lawyer closed the envelope and called NARA, the source said.
After making contact with NARA, Biden’s team turned over several boxes in an abundance of caution, even though many of the boxes contained personal materials, the source said.
Biden, who became US President in January 2021, had previously served as US Vice President between 2008 and 2016, under then-US President Barack Obama.
According to media reports, Attorney General Merrick Garland has already assigned a US attorney from Chicago who was appointed by former US President Donald Trump to oversee the matter - a move Garland made after receiving an inquiry from the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The documents have reportedly already been surrendered to the agency.
News about the documents first hit the news waves on Monday, but contained no details. Biden dodged questions about the discovery asked of him during an appearance with Mexican President Andrews Manuel Lopez Obrador.
The report comes amid a lengthy struggle between Trump and the federal government over hundreds of classified files found unsecured at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. After several requests for the files by NARA, which only received incomplete returns, the FBI launched a raid of the estate in August 2022 and seized hundreds more from a storage closet.
Trump has refused to cooperate with the investigation, calling it a "witch hunt" and claiming it is intended to stop him from returning to office in 2024. Trump announced his new presidential campaign after the midterm elections in November.
Trump Wonders if FBI Will Raid Biden's Home After Secret Docs Found at POTUS' Former Office
In August 2022, the FBI conducted a raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence as part of a probe into his post-presidential handling of classified documents.
Donald Trump has taken to the social platform Truth Social to question whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will react to the discovery of a slew of classified documents from President Joe Biden’s time as VP in a private office.
“When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House? These documents were definitely not declassified,” the former US president wrote.
He was echoed by his son Donald Jr., who tweeted that he would like to know when the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team will “storm one of Biden's many vacation homes bought and paid for somehow by a lifetime of being a humble public servant.”
The same tone was struck by Ronny Jackson, the former White House doctor turned Texas congressman, who described the news about “highly classified documents” being “improperly stored” in one of Biden’s private offices as “incredible.” “(...) Where is the FBI? Where is the dramatic raid? We have two systems of justice in this country: one for them and one for us,” Jackson claimed.
The remarks follow a US media outlet reporting that the federal prosecutor’s office is reviewing about 10 documents found by Biden’s personal attorneys at his vice-presidential office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a Washington-based think tank, in early November.
The sensitive materials were reportedly found while the attorneys prepared to vacate the office space, where the classified documents were said to have been located alongside other unclassified papers.
After the documents were identified and reported to the National Archives on November 2, the agency took possession of the materials and notified the Justice Department.
Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden, said in a statement that the White House is “cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified marking.”
The developments come as special counsel Jack Smith is probing Trump for potentially mishandling classified records at his Mar-a-Lago resort in southern Florida. Federal investigators have recovered at least 325 classified documents from Trump as part of their inquiry.
The investigation was preceded by the FBI raid on the Mar-a-Lago residence, where bureau agents searched documents that the ex-POTUS had taken from the White House at the end of his term, rather than surrendering them to the National Archives in line with the Presidential Records Act.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the matter, slamming the “unannounced raid” on his home as “not necessary or appropriate." He dubbed the FBI’s actions “prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want him president in 2024.”
Last month, US District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, of the Southern District of Florida, dismissed Trump’s lawsuit challenging the Mar-a-Lago search for “lack of jurisdiction.”
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