US politics & policy

More classified documents found in Biden’s Delaware home

Further disclosure adds to pressure on US president over handling of government secrets

The latest documents were found at President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware © AP

James Politi in Washington AN HOUR AGO

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The White House said on Saturday it had discovered more sensitive documents at Joe
Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, piling political and legal pressure on to the
US president.

In a statement, Richard Sauber, Biden’s special counsel, said he had found five pages
of classified material in a room adjacent to the garage of the president’s Wilmington
home, in addition to those disclosed earlier this week.

The fresh disclosure came after the White House on Monday said it had found
classified government records at a private office Biden used in Washington On
classified government records at a private office Biden used in Washington. On
Thursday it was revealed that a small batch of papers had also been found at his main
residence in Delaware.

The emergence of new classified documents in Biden’s possession led Merrick

Garland, the attorney-general, to on Thursday appoint a special counsel to investigate
the president’s handling of the documents.

The discovery of the classified documents has called into question Biden’s competence
and that of his staff in caring for sensitive government material during the
presidential transition between the Obama administration and the Trump
administration in 2017.

The classified material dates back to Biden’s days as vice-president between 2009 and
2017.

The president has also faced criticism for not publicly disclosing the discoveries
sooner. The initial documents at Biden’s private office at the Penn Biden Center in
Washington were discovered on November 2, a few days before the midterm elections.
The second batch at his Wilmington home was found on December 20, and yet the
White House only revealed the discoveries this week, after an initial report from CBS
News.

On Saturday, Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal attorney, released a timeline of the findings
and justified the delay in public disclosures by saying the president’s aides were trying
“to balance the importance of public transparency where appropriate with the
established norms and limitations necessary to protect the investigation’s integrity”.

Bauer said that the “identification of witnesses, or specific documents, or events, may
complicate the ability of authorities conducting the review to obtain information
readily, and in an uncompromised form”.

He added that “regular ongoing public disclosures also pose the risk that, as further
information develops, answers provided on this periodic basis may be incomplete”.

The White House said it had always fully co-operated with the justice department and
Biden’s aides informed them of their findings at every stage.

Biden has said he was surprised by the discovery of the classified documents and that
he took sensitive material “very seriously”.
The discovery of classified documents in Biden’s hands comes as former president
Donald Trump is facing a criminal probe into his own handling of classified papers
from his time in the White House. The Trump case is significantly different, however,
because he for months resisted handing over the material which was stored at his
Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, leading to a raid by FBI agents on his home
last August.

Garland has also appointed a special counsel to investigate Trump’s handling of

classified material, as well as his role in the January 6 insurrection.

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