More Classified Documents Found at Biden’s Delaware Home: White House

Additional classified documents have been found at President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware, the White House said Saturday.

Biden’s personal attorney found one document on Wednesday and Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, discovered the rest of the documents along with Justice Department (DOJ) officials on Thursday.

Six pages, all with classification markings and stored in a room adjacent to the garage at Biden’s home, were found during the search, Sauber said in a Jan. 14 statement.

“The President’s personal attorneys discovered one document with a classified marking consisting of one page in a room adjacent to the garage. At that point, the President’s personal attorneys stopped searching the immediate area where the document was found,” Sauber said in the statement. “I went to Wilmington Thursday evening to facilitate providing the document…to the Justice Department.”

“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,” he added.

Biden’s personal attorneys have been helping search the Penn Biden Center and Biden’s Delaware home after classified documents were found at the President’s previous office and home.

The attorneys—who do not have active security clearances—will halt the search and notify DOJ once they find a document with a classified marking, Sauber stated.

Sauber reiterated Saturday that the White House would cooperate with Hur’s investigation.

Updates Come 2 Days After Discovery

The latest disclosure is in addition to the discovery of documents found in December in Biden’s garage and in November at his former offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington D.C., from his time as vice president.

The apparent mishandling of classified documents and official records from the Obama administration are under investigation by a former U.S. attorney, Robert Hur, who was appointed as a special counsel on Thursday by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Sauber has previously said that the White House was “confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.”

Sauber’s statement did not explain why the White House waited two days to provide an updated accounting of the number of classified documents records.

The White House is already facing scrutiny for waiting more than two months to acknowledge the discovery of the initial group of documents at the Biden office.

On Thursday, asked whether Biden could guarantee that additional classified documents would not turn up in a further search, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, “You should assume that it’s been completed, yes.”

Biden Classified Documents Case Timeline

The White House stated that the initial discovery took place on Nov. 2, 2022, and that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which is charged with taking possession of presidential records after an administration leaves office, was immediately notified. NARA was said to have received the materials the next day. Representatives for NARA declined to comment on the matter.

According to Garland, the DOJ wasn’t notified of the matter until Nov. 4, 2022. The notification was made by the NARA Inspector General’s Office.

The public wasn’t informed of any of the discoveries until Jan. 9.

Below is a timeline of the classified document discovery (source):

Nov. 2, 2022: Biden’s attorneys find files with classified markings at Penn Biden Center, where the president had worked from 2017 to 2019. (White House)

Nov. 2, 2022: Biden’s attorneys notify NARA of the discovery. (White House)

Nov. 3, 2022: NARA takes possession of the documents. (White House)

Nov. 4, 2022: NARA Inspector General’s Office alerts a prosecutor with the DOJ. (Attorney General Garland)

Nov. 9, 2022: FBI launches assessment to determine whether any classified information was mishandled, in violation of the law. (Garland)

Nov. 14, 2022: Garland assigns U.S. Attorney John Lausch to conduct an initial investigation. (Garland)

Dec. 20, 2022: Biden’s lawyers inform Lausch that more documents bearing classified markings were found at Biden’s residence in Wilmington. FBI agents travel to the location and secure the documents. (Garland and White House)

Jan. 5, 2023: Lausch briefs Garland and advises that further investigation by a special counsel is warranted. (Garland)

Jan. 9, 2023: White House discloses discovery of documents at Penn Biden Center. (White House)

Jan. 12, 2023: Biden lawyers inform Lausch that one more document was found at Biden’s home. (Garland)

Jan. 12, 2023: White House discloses discovery of documents at Wilmington residence. (White House)

Jan. 12, 2023: Garland appoints Richard Hur as special counsel. (Garland)

Jan. 14, 2023: White House discloses more classified documents were found at Wilmington residence. (White House)

Read Richard Sauber’s Statement:

The Associated Press and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.