President Joe Biden’s aides have found more confidential documents dating back to his time as vice president in a second term, according to multiple reports.
NBC News first reported Wednesday that the president’s aides were looking for any additional classified material after an initial batch of files were found in November, probing locations used by Biden after he left the Obama administration. It is not clear where the last documents were found, how many there were or what information they contained.
The reports come days after the White House said Biden’s personal lawyers found a small number of confidential files in a private office last year dating back to his tenure as vice president. These documents were found in a locked cabinet at a think tank in Washington, DC, which Biden used for several years from 2017 to 2020.
The president’s lawyers notified the National Archives of their findings the same day and turned over the documents a day later. The White House said the Justice Department would look into the incident, adding that it was “cooperating” with the agency.
Biden said after the first report that he was “surprised” when he first learned that confidential files existed in a former office.
“After I was notified of the discovery, I was surprised to learn that government documents were taken to that office,” Biden told reporters Tuesday. “But I don’t know what’s in the documents.”
Republicans seized on the news, including former President Donald Trump, who is being investigated for fleeing to his Florida estate with boxes of classified information. However, Trump failed to note that he resisted attempts to return those documents when the National Archives demanded them, or that investigators later learned he was hiding even further at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, in Florida.
Richard Sauber, the president’s special counsel, suggested on Monday that the issue at hand was different, saying that the first set of documents uncovered by the president’s lawyers “were not the subject of any prior request or investigation by the archives.”
“Since that discovery, the president’s personal attorneys have been working with the archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that all Obama-Biden administration documents are in the archives,” Sauber said in a statement this week.
I’m a passionate and motivated journalist with a focus on world news. My experience spans across various media outlets, including Buna Times where I serve as an author. Over the years, I have become well-versed in researching and reporting on global topics, ranging from international politics to current events.