Probe launched into classified records found at Biden centre
White House says it is cooperating with the Justice Department’s probe
Officials have said the Trump investigation concerns not just the possible mishandling of government secrets, but also possible obstruction of justice or destruction of records.
The US Justice Department has launched a review into the discovery of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, an institute in Washington that Joe Biden started after serving as vice president, according to people familiar with the matter.
The White House confirmed the ongoing inquiry and said it is cooperating with the Justice Department and quickly handed over the documents to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Roughly 10 documents were found, said one person familiar with the inquiry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly. The discovery was first reported by CBS News.
The documents were found at the Penn Biden Center in early November, not long before Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped a special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee the agency’s criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s possible mishandling of hundreds of classified documents that were taken to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency ended.
Officials have said the Trump investigation concerns not just the possible mishandling of government secrets, but also possible obstruction of justice or destruction of records.
While the Biden case has obvious echoes of the Mar-aLago investigation, the details provided by Biden’s lawyer on Monday suggest key differences that could factor heavily in whether the Biden documents become a criminal matter.
Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden, said the Biden documents were discovered by the president’s lawyers and voluntarily turned over to authorities. By comparison, in Trump’s case, NARA officials pressed for material to be returned, and then Trump’s office was served with a grand jury subpoena demanding their return.