WASHINGTON (AP) – The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday and found additional documents containing documents and seized some of his personal documents, the president’s lawyer said Saturday.
The president freely allowed the FBI to enter his home, but the lack of a search warrant did not dampen the interest of the search. It added to Biden’s embarrassment that began with the January 12 revelation that the President’s lawyers. found a “small amount” of history in the old office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington before the midterm elections. Since then, prosecutors have found six documents at Biden’s home in Wilmington library from his time as vice president.
Although Biden maintained “nowhere there,” these findings have become a political problem as they prepare to start another election, and they are failing to present the right image. to the American people after the turmoil of President Donald Trump.
During Friday’s investigation, which lasted about 13 hours, the FBI seized six items that contained classified documents, said Bob Bauer, the president’s attorney. The situation took over Biden’s time in the Senate and as Vice President, while his record became the Vice President, he said. The extent of the classification, and whether the documents removed by the FBI remained classified, were not immediately known as the Justice Department reviewed the documents.
Assistant US Attorney Joseph Fitzpatrick confirmed Saturday that the FBI conducted a “coordinated search” of the president’s home in Wilmington.
President and first lady Jill Biden was not at home when they were laughed at. They spent weekends at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Speaking to reporters on a trip to California on Thursday, Mr. Biden said he was “in full agreement and hoping to get this done quickly.”
“We found a few documents that were stored in the wrong place,” Biden said. “Immediately we handed them over to the Archives and Justice Department.”
It remains to be seen whether further searches by local authorities can be carried out. Biden’s attorneys previously searched the Rehoboth Beach home and said they found no official documents or documents.
The Biden investigation has also interfered with the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents and personal history after he left office. The Justice Department says Trump took hundreds of documents with him when he left the White House in early 2021 and refused months after requests to return them to the government, saying he had to get a warrant to get them.
Bauer said the FBI had asked the White House not to comment on the investigation before it began, and that lawyers for Biden and the White House were present. The FBI, he added, “had access to the President’s residence, including documents, files, papers, binders, memorabilia, notes, schedules, and old memorabilia.”
The Ministry of Justice, he added, “took possession of the items it saw as requested, including six items containing documents containing classified documents and circular materials, some of which came from the President in the Senate and some of which were from his position as Vice to the President.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed former Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert Hur as special counsel to investigate any possible wrongdoing in Biden’s documents. Hur is expected to take over from Illinois US Attorney John Lausch who was appointed by Trump to oversee the investigation.
“From the beginning, the president has been committed to doing this right because he takes this very seriously,” White House lawyer Richard Sauber said Saturday. “The President’s attorneys and the White House Counsel’s Office will continue to cooperate with the DOJ and the Special Counsel to ensure that this process is carried out quickly and efficiently.”
Biden’s documents obtained by the Trump investigation, which are in the hands of special counsel Jack Smith, they are very different. Biden has made it a point to cooperate with DOJ investigations at all times — and Friday’s search was voluntary — despite questions about his transparency. and people to stay.
For a crime to be committed, a person must knowingly “remove” the documents without permission and intend to keep them in an “unauthorized location.” Mr. Biden said he was “surprised” that confidential documents were revealed at the Penn Biden Center.
In general, group records must be destroyed after 25 years. But some records are so valuable that they are kept for a long time, although some exceptions must be made. Biden served in the Senate from 1973 to 2009.
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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, contributed to this story.
