An additional six pages of classified documents were found in President Biden’s possession at his Delaware home, according to the White House.
A member of Biden's legal team found the materials at Biden's home in Wilmington, Del. An aide to the president initially notified the Justice Department of a single document found in the home’s storage area on the evening on Dec. 20, but an additional five pages were discovered when officials arrived to collect it, The New York Times reported.
The administration notified the National Archives and Records Administration and the Justice Department after finding the new classified pages in Biden’s Wilmington home.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has since appointed a special counsel to investigate “the possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records discovered,” according to The New York Times. Prior to the discovery of the documents in Biden’s private home, Garland assigned U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch to investigate the classified documents found in the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in November 2022.
The first set of materials — found in the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.— consisted mainly of Biden family documents and was reported to contain information on Ukraine, Iran, and the United Kingdom, among other foreign countries from Biden’s vice presidential term, according to CNN. Following their discovery, the documents were handed over to the National Archives and Records Administration. The contents of the six new documents remain unclear.
The Penn Biden Center — a University think tank — serves as a center for diplomacy and global engagement for the Penn community, providing students and faculty with opportunities to collaborate with world leaders. The center served as Biden’s primary office when it opened in Feb. 2018.
The special counsel investigation into these documents — headed by Robert K. Hur, the U.S. attorney for Maryland — begins during the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation of 1968 Wharton graduate and former President Donald Trump. Trump was found to be in possession of over 300 classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago property in August 2022.
White House lawyer Richard Sauber said that the Biden administration will remain cooperative for the duration of the investigation, according to The New York Times, although the president has received criticism for failing to disclose the Nov. 2 discovery for two months.
As of Feb. 2017, Biden held joint appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Arts and Sciences as a Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor before leaving Penn in 2019 to pursue his presidential nomination.
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