Search of Biden beach home turns up no classified files
WASHINGTON — The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., on Wednesday without finding any classified documents, the president’s attorney said. Agents did take some handwritten notes and other materials relating to Biden’s time as vice president for review.
The search, disclosed by Biden’s personal lawyer, was the latest discomfiting moment for a president who has sought to contrast his sensitivity to rule-following with that of his predecessor Donald Trump, who faces a criminal investigation into his handling of classified documents.
Wednesday’s search, the third for a Biden home or office, was an extraordinary development for a sitting president, and made clear that an investigation that had simmered quietly for weeks was continuing rather than fading away as Biden, who has said he was surprised by an earlier records discovery, presumably
hoped.
The attorney, Bob Bauer, said FBI agents spent three and a half hours searching the home and that, “No documents with classified markings were found.”
Biden’s attorneys revealed last month that they had undertaken their search of the home without turning up classified materials. The fact the FBI did its own search reflected the Justice Department’s determination to retrieve any and all possible classified items rather than rely on assurances that such documents had been located.
In a statement disclosing the search, Bauer sought to portray the president and his team as fully transparent and cooperative.
Bauer did not mention Trump by name, but the statement seemed aimed at juxtaposing the Biden investigation with the Trump case. Biden has sharply criticized Trump’s mishandling of classified government files at his residence in Florida.
The latest search follows the FBI’s 13-hour, top-to-bottom check of Biden’s Wilmington, Del., home, where agents located documents with classified markings from his time as a vice president and senator and also took possession of some of his handwritten notes.
The Biden documents probe is being handled by a special counsel, Robert Hur, a former senior Justice Department official during the Trump administration who served as the top federal prosecutor in Baltimore. He is starting his work this week, inheriting a monthslong investigation already undertaken by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors.