During the search of the country house of the US President Joe Biden, no documents marked “secret” were found, his lawyer says. US authorities searched Biden’s beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The search was part of an investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents as a senator and vice president.
Agents arrived at Biden’s beach house in Rehoboth on Wednesday morning. The Department of Justice has already examined classified documents in Biden’s private office in Washington, as well as at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. The FBI found documents there that shouldn’t be in the president’s personal quarters.
Biden bought a beach house after serving as vice president under Barack Obama (2009-2017). He spends the occasional weekend there with his wife Jill, most recently the weekend of January 20-23. According to lawyer Bob Bauer, the president has fully cooperated with the operation of investigators from the US Department of Justice in Delaware.
Bauer previously said that on January 11, the president’s personal lawyers searched the Rehoboth home and the Wilmington residence. While those Wilmington attorneys found classified documents, a search in Rehoboth turned up no such documents, Bauer reported.
According to the lawyer, the “planned” search will be part of the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents. Previously found records date back to the period when Biden was vice president of the United States under Barack Obama (from 2009 to 2017). The exact number of classified documents seized remains unclear, although at least a dozen were discovered during searches in January alone.
The first package of documents was discovered back in November. Last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland also appointed a special counsel to oversee the investigation into the Biden documents. This was the same Garland who last year appointed another attorney to investigate the discovery of classified documents at Donald Trump’s Florida residence.
The revelations about Biden came after he sharply criticized his predecessor, Donald Trump, who was also found with classified documents, albeit on a larger scale. And in January it also became known that his Vice President Mike Pence also has confidential documents. These are documents that should have been returned to the National Archives. Meanwhile, there is also growing criticism of how the US administration handles its classified documents.
Source : HLN