The Justice Department found six new classified documents inside President Joe Biden’s Delaware home during a search by FBI agents, the president’s attorney announced Saturday night.
The discovery during a day-long search Friday marked the fifth time since November that classified materials have been found in an office or home of the 46th president.
“DOJ requested that the search not be made public in advance, in accordance with its standard procedures, and we agreed to cooperate,” Biden personal attorney Bob Bauer said in a statement.
“DOJ had full access to the President’s home, including personally handwritten notes, files, papers, binders, memorabilia, to-do lists, schedules, and reminders going back decades,” he added. “DOJ took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President. DOJ also took for further review personally handwritten notes from the vice-presidential years.”
George Washington University law school professor Jonathan Turley said the latest discovery undercut Biden’s defense of an inadvertent mishandling of documents and required more than his stated lack of remorse.
“It becomes increasing implausible that dozens of documents were distributed to at least four different locations by pure ‘inadvertence,’” Turley tweeted Sunday morning, “At what point do the mounting stacks of classified documents produce a modicum of regret?”
The six memos found Friday are in addition to 11 classified documents found at the Biden home in Wilmington, Del., beginning on Dec. 20.
In addition, more classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center in Washington back on Nov. 2.
The discoveries have transformed the politics of a scandal that first started with the discovery of documents with classified markings in former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, which prompted an FBI raid.
Biden slammed Trump as irresponsible, only to see the controversy boomerang around on him with the discovery of classified materials in his own possession at insecure locations.
As recently as Friday Biden was trying to minimize the discoveries, saying there was “no there, there.”
But after the new search on Friday, congressional Republicans immediately seized on the revelation that even more documents had been found.
“I guess there wasn’t nothing there there, Mr. President,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., tweeted Saturday night in mocking derision.
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