More classified papers found at Biden’s home
Lawyers release public timeline of discoveries
President Biden’s lawyers found additional classified documents at his home in Wilmington, Del., this past week, the White House disclosed Saturday, the latest of revelations about the discovery of top-secret government material that is now the subject of a Justice Department special counsel investigation.
Biden’s personal lawyers initially found one document with a classified marking on Wednesday in a room adjacent to the garage and stopped searching the property because they did not have security clearance. A White House lawyer with a clearance, Richard Sauber, then arrived at the Wilmington residence Thursday and found five additional documents with classified markings, Sauber said in a statement.
‘‘Because I have a security clearance, I went to Wilmington Thursday evening to facilitate providing the document the president’s personal counsel found on Wednesday to the Justice Department,’’ Sauber said. ‘‘While I was transferring it to the DOJ officials who accompanied me, five additional pages with classification markings were discovered among the material with it, for a total of six pages. The DOJ officials with me immediately took possession of them.’’
Also on Saturday, Bob Bauer, the president’s personal attorney, released a public timeline of events regarding the discovery of classified documents at Biden’s personal office and his Wilmington home in an effort to demonstrate cooperation with the Justice Department’s investigation.
The statement outlines the steps Biden’s lawyers have taken since last November, when they discovered what the White House described as a ‘‘small number’’ of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, an institute in Washington where Biden kept an office after serving as vice president.
The statements from Sauber and Bauer follow days of criticism directed at the White House for not being more transparent about the various discoveries of classified materials. Bauer defended the Biden team for not being more forthcoming.
‘‘The president’s personal attorneys have attempted to balance the importance of public transparency where appropriate with the established norms and limitations necessary to protect the investigation’s integrity,’’ Bauer said in his statement.
Bauer also acknowledged that Biden’s legal team is unsure that all relevant documents have been found. ‘‘Adhering to this process means that any disclosure regarding documents cannot be conclusive until the government has conducted its inquiry,’’ he said.
The White House has not identified the lawyer who first discovered the classified documents, but a person familiar with the matter said it was Pat Moore, a longtime Biden attorney who served as deputy general counsel on Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. Moore continued to represent Biden outside the White House after the campaign, but he is slated to join the Massachusetts attorney general’s office this month as first assistant attorney general. Moore declined to comment.
Moore and another lawyer, who has not been identified, arrived at the Biden Penn Center office on Nov. 2 to help empty out Biden’s personal office. While looking through folders, Moore found a cover sheet that had classified markings on it and called the White House Counsel’s Office, according to the person familiar with the matter, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details. The White House Counsel’s Office informed the National Archives and Records Administration, and then the Justice Department became involved, the person said.
Biden aides were initially hesitant to release information related to the Justice Department’s investigation because they did not want to interfere with the probe and hoped it would be completed quickly, according to a Biden adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Aides also were worried about releasing information without having a complete understanding of the total number and sensitivity of classified information at the Biden Penn Center or at one of the president’s two residences in Delaware, the adviser said.
This adviser and a second Biden adviser said they think the president has no criminal exposure and that the improper handling and storage of the records was the result of sloppiness by aides rushing to pack up Biden’s vice-presidential office. Biden, aides said, has expressed deep frustration with aides for what he sees as clumsiness and is frustrated that Republicans will, in his belief, falsely equate his actions with those of former president Donald Trump.
On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate the handling of classified documents found at Biden’s former office and his Wilmington residence. Garland tapped Robert K. Hur, a senior official at the Justice Department during the Trump administration, to lead the investigation. Hur’s appointment comes after Garland in November named a special counsel, Jack Smith, to lead a separate probe into the retention of classified documents at Trump’s Florida residence.
Garland’s decision to appoint Hur in the Biden case followed an initial investigation led by John Lausch, the US attorney in Chicago and a Trump administration holdover. Initially, the investigation centered on the discovery of the classified documents — about 10 in total, according to the people familiar with the matter — at the Penn Biden Center.
But on Dec. 20, a lawyer for Biden notified Lausch that additional classified documents were found in the garage at Biden’s Wilmington home. Then, on Thursday morning, Biden’s attorney alerted authorities that an additional classified document was found at Biden’s Wilmington residence in a room adjacent to the garage.
At this stage, the Trump and Biden classified documents cases appear to differ in significant ways. In Trump’s case, the FBI conducted a court-approved search last August of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago Club and residence after months of demands for the return of all secret government documents.
According to government court findings, the FBI recovered more than 300 classified documents and thousands of nonclassified government materials from Mar-a-Lago.
By contrast, Biden’s team says it voluntarily notified authorities upon discovery of classified documents and appears to have returned all materials to the government.