It was disclosed on Tuesday that FBI agents conducted a search of the office formerly occupied by Vice President Biden at a Washington, D.C. think tank – days after his own attorney discovered secret information inside.
CBS News stated that the White House and the Justice Department did not reveal the search, despite the White House’s assertion of ‘openness’ regarding the discovery of classified material.
During the search, which took place in mid-November, it was not immediately clear whether any other classified materials were uncovered.
A Biden attorney uncovered ten ‘classified’ records on November 2, days before the midterm elections. The attorney then called the National Archives, which alerted the Justice Department.
The news of the FBI search comes at a time when the Biden administration is facing increasing pressure from Democrats to divulge the contents of sensitive materials discovered at his home and office.
The FBI conducted a search of Penn Biden’s office for secret materials in November, it was announced on Tuesday.
Bob Bauer, Biden’s attorney, issued a statement on January 14 in which he did not recognize the government’s search but did note the government’s “inquiry, including taking possession of any documents and reviewing surrounding material for additional review and context.”
On Friday, January 20, the FBI conducted a search of Biden’s house in Wilmington and discovered additional classified documents.
Top Republicans have demanded that the government conduct a search of the president’s beach residence in Rehoboth, Delaware, where Biden’s staff claims no secret documents were discovered during its own investigation.
There are no indications that a search was conducted last weekend, when Vice President Biden was at Camp David and in Wilmington, as the White House was asked last week about the possibility.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated earlier this month during a particularly combative White House press conference, “There has been no limit to transparency.”
The repeated disclosures follow months of reporting about former President Donald Trump’s own resistance to government efforts to release papers – including the FBI’s seizure of hundreds of secret documents during a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.
The search at the Penn Biden facility in Washington, D.C. took place days after the original discovery of the documents.
The FBI conducted a search of Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware, where secret items were found in the garage and private library.
Biden’s classic Corvette Stingray resides in the same garage as some boxes and a lampshade.
Biden was in New York to promote infrastructure improvements when the news broke.
Biden has been asked repeatedly about the documents, sometimes berating reporters and other times defending his conduct.
Former Barack Obama advisor David Axelrod is among the prominent Democrats who have criticized the Biden White House for lack of transparency. In an op-ed, Axelrod blasted the administration for violating a crisis communications motto to “fully disclose all the facts” as soon as possible.
This month, Bauer’s comments regarding the Wilmington search made plain that the Justice Department participated in the search.
DOJ ‘took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its investigation, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some from the President’s service in the Senate and some from his tenure as Vice President,’ Bauer said in a statement at the time. According to him, investigators also obtained Biden’s handwritten notes during his stint as vice president.
»November FBI searches included Penn Biden Center«