Second batch of classified Biden documents found
US President Joe Biden’s aides have discovered a new batch of classified government records at a second location, adding to the White House’s growing political embarrassment.
The first cache was discovered in a private office in Washington DC that Mr. Biden used after leaving the vice presidency.
The US Department of Justice is investigating the situation.
Former President Donald Trump is being investigated for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
On Wednesday, it was unclear when or where the additional tranche of files was discovered by Biden aides.
The original batch of approximately ten documents was discovered in November at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank near the White House, but was only recently made public.
These papers are said to contain US intelligence memos and briefing materials on Ukraine, Iran, and the United Kingdom.
They pertain to his time as Vice President under President Barack Obama, but it is unclear why they appeared in a private office he began using after that.
Access to classified documents is restricted to those with special authorization under the law, and there are rules governing how they are kept and stored.
After an administration leaves office, all White House records, including classified ones, must be turned over to the US National Archives.
The White House has yet to respond to the recently discovered batch. The discovery, however, has been confirmed by the BBC’s US partner CBS and other US media outlets.
Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden’s press secretary, declined to answer questions about the first cache of files during her daily press briefing on Wednesday.
“The Department of Justice is looking into it,” she said. “I’m not going to go any further than what the president said yesterday.”
She was pressed on why the news took two months to become public, and she refused to say when Mr. Biden was briefed on it. The discovery occurred just days before the midterm elections for Congress.
Mr. Biden stated on Tuesday that he was “surprised” to learn of the allegations and that he was “cooperating” with the Justice Department’s investigation.
The controversy arises as the Democratic president faces increased scrutiny from a new Republican majority in the United States House of Representatives.
“Oversight and accountability are coming now that Democrats no longer have one-party rule in Washington,” James Comer, the new chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said on Wednesday.
The committee is conducting investigations into the president and his family, including a request for the White House to turn over classified documents and communications.
According to the White House, Mr. Biden’s lawyers notified the archives as soon as they discovered the classified materials at the think tank, and the agency retrieved them the following morning.
Last August, FBI agents raided Mr. Biden’s predecessor’s Florida home and seized over 10,000 files that Mr. Trump had not turned over to the National Archives.
Before the FBI arrived at Mar-a-Lago, the Justice Department had issued a subpoena demanding the return of the sensitive files.
Federal agents recovered more than 300 documents with classified markings, including 18 marked top secrets, from a Palm Beach golf club.
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