A second tranche of files with classified markings was discovered in a storage space in President Joe Biden’s Wilmington garage, White House counsel Richard Sauber revealed Thursday.
The finding came after Biden’s lawyers initiated a search of Biden’s Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, residences in the wake of a classified document discovery at a Biden-aligned think tank last year.
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One of the documents was also found in an adjacent room and no pertinent material was discovered at Biden’s Rehoboth Beach residence, Sauber explained. Sauber did not give a precise date for when the second discovery was made, but noted the review Biden’s lawyers commenced after the discovery of the first batch was completed Wednesday evening.
“Lawyers discovered among personal and political papers a small number of additional Obama-Biden Administration records with classified markings. All but one of these documents were found in storage space in the President’s Wilmington residence garage,” Sauber said in a statement.
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Prior reports indicated that a second batch of files with classified documents possessed by Biden was discovered but did not indicate where or when they were found.
Following the discovery, the lawyers alerted the Justice Department and made arrangements to transfer them. Like the initial batch, which was found in Biden’s old private office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington on Nov. 2, the documents appeared to stem from his vice presidential days.
“As we stated previously, we are fully cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in possession of the Archives,” Sauber added.
Roughly 10 documents were found during the first discovery and featured intelligence on Iran, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom dated from 2013 to 2016. Biden reportedly used the office space on occasion from 2017 until the start of his 2020 campaign as part of his honorary professorship at the University of Pennsylvania, which is affiliated with the think tank.
Biden has maintained that he’s “cooperating fully.” Presidents and vice presidents are required to turn presidential documents over to the National Archives at the end of administrations in keeping with the Presidential Records Act.
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Trump administration U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch has reportedly been tasked with investigating the matter and examining how the material with classified markings ended up at the think tank.
The controversy about Biden’s handling of classified information has elicited Republican criticisms. Former President Donald Trump has blasted Biden over the revelations as he faces Justice Department scrutiny for a trove of roughly 300 documents with classified markings found at his Mar-a-Lago estate last year. He has denied wrongdoing and special counsel Jack Smith has been overseeing the inquiry.
