A third batch of secret files belonging to Joe Biden’s vice presidency was found at his Delaware home.
The president’s attorneys announced the find on Saturday, saying they found five additional pages marked as classified in his home Thursday night.
A total of six secret documents have been found in Biden’s home in Delaware.
His personal attorneys discovered the documents but did not have permission to see them, so they had to consult Richard Sauber, the President’s special counsel.
“Because I have a security clearance, I drove to Wilmington Thursday night to facilitate the delivery of the document that the President’s personal attorney found Wednesday to the Justice Department,” Sauber said, according to Fox News.
“While handing it over to the DOJ officials accompanying me, five additional pages of classification markings were discovered among the accompanying material, for a total of six pages. The DOJ officials with me immediately took possession of them.’
A third set of classified documents was found Thursday at Joe Biden’s Delaware home
The latest discovery comes just days after two more sets were found. The first set of sensitive files was found in a DC office for his think tank, and as the Biden administration dodged questions about whether they tracked down other records.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was followed by reporters during her Thursday briefing just before the article was published – and insisted that Biden takes classified documents and their preservation “seriously.”
On Wednesday, reporters asked Jean-Pierre if Biden had checked whether he might have taken other documents to another office he has or to his homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth, Delaware.
She declined to answer, saying: “I’m just not going to talk about it. I let the process continue. It’s an ongoing process. And so I’m just not going to talk about it from here. It’s more prudent and appropriate for my colleagues in the White House.’
Earlier in the week it was reported that in November 2022, attorneys for the president discovered documents in his former office at the Penn-Biden Center in Washington DC, which he used after his stint as vice president.
The documents were discovered in a locked cupboard as the lawyers were clearing the office to move out.
The White House acknowledged that Biden’s lawyers found 10 documents with classified markings in an old Washington DC think tank office, and the president was peppered with questions about the discovery.
The classified documents, which appear to have come from the Obama administration, were found on November 2 – ahead of the midterm elections – although news of the documents didn’t emerge until months later.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment at a news conference on classified documents found in a think tank office formerly used by President Joe Biden
The DC office building where 10 classified documents were found in a former office of current President Joe Biden
US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who approved the FBI search warrant issued at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, is being asked to do the same for President Biden and his handling of classified documents
Senator Lindsey Graham said on Fox News Wednesday that Attorney General Merrick Garland should appoint a special counsel to deal with the matter, as he did for the Trump investigation.
“Garland, if you’re listening, if you felt it necessary, Attorney General, to appoint a special counsel in relation to President Trump, then you must do the exact same thing in relation to President Biden when it comes to handling classified information,” said South Carolina Republicans.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley responded to the news by simply tweeting the words “Special Counsel.”
“My question is regarding the first batch, what did Merrick Garland know when they were discovered on November 3 and he declared a special counsel for Trump on November 18?” Republican Representative Mike Waltz of Florida told .
“Obviously he had some knowledge and he still chose a special counsel, announced him, you know, had this whole rollout and no mention. What did he know?’
Waltz also polled “who knew” about the documents between November 3 and November 8, midterm election day.
“The timing is incredibly suspicious,” Waltz continued. “It must be one of the greatest coincidences in the world if politics weren’t involved.”
Biden was questioned about the documents at the head of his trilateral news conference Tuesday in Mexico City alongside Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The President said he was “surprised” to find out classified documents were discovered in a box in a locked cupboard. But said his lawyers did what they should have done.
“They immediately called the archives – immediately called the archives and turned them over to the archives,” the president said.
The documents were discovered on November 2nd and turned over to the archives on November 3rd.
Armed Secret Service agents stand outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida late Monday, August 8, 2022 while the FBI searched a portion of his home for classified White House files
Former President Donald Trump says Biden’s home, like his Mar-a-Lago estate, should be “searched” for classified documents
Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the Trump investigation on Nov. 18.
Biden said he didn’t know the contents of the documents and his attorneys advised him not to ask about them.
“And we are fully cooperating with the review,” the president added.
Republicans have lamented a “double standard” and said Trump’s possession of classified documents made him the subject of a raid in Mar-a-Lago in August.
The Biden team has pointed out that in Trump’s case, the FBI knew that Trump had not fully complied with a subpoena from the archives to return all classified documents. In Biden’s case, the archives were unaware of the missing documents.
Ohio Representative Mike Turner, the newly appointed chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, contacted Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and said Biden’s preservation of the documents exposed him to a “potential violation of laws protecting national security, including the Espionage Act, transfer and Presidential Records Act.”
Under the Presidential Records Act, White House documents and classified records are required to be preserved at the National Archives in Washington, DC