AP: Other classified documents found in Biden’s home by lawyers

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s lawyers have found more classified documents at his home in Wilmington, Delaware than previously known, the White House acknowledged Saturday.

White House lawyer Richard Sauber said in a statement that during the search of Biden’s private library, a total of six pages of classified documents were found. The White House previously said only one page was found there.

The latest disclosure adds to the discovery of documents found in December in Biden’s garage and in November in 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 by the Obama administration is being investigated by former U.S. Attorney Robert Gurr, who was appointed special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday.

Sauber said in a statement Saturday that Biden’s personal attorneys, who did not have a security clearance, ended the search after finding the first page Wednesday night. Sauber found the remnants of the materials on Thursday when he was assisting with the Department of Justice’s search for them.

“While I was turning it over to the Justice Department officials who were accompanying me, five additional pages of classified information were found among the materials with it, for a total of six pages,” Sauber said. “Justice officials with me immediately took possession of them.”

Sauber previously said the White House was “confident that a thorough review would show that these documents were unintentionally inappropriate, and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovering this error.”

Sauber’s statement did not explain why the White House waited two days to provide an update on the number of classified records. The White House is already under scrutiny for waiting more than two months to acknowledge the discovery of the initial batch of documents from Biden’s office.

Asked Thursday if Biden could guarantee that additional classified documents would not turn up in further searches, White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre told reporters: “You have to assume it’s done, yes.”

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

Bob Bauer, the president’s personal attorney, said his legal team “attempted to balance the importance of public transparency, where appropriate, with the established norms and limitations necessary to protect the integrity of the investigation.”

The Justice Department has historically set a high legal bar before bringing criminal charges in cases involving the misuse of classified information, requiring that someone intend to break the law, rather than simply being careless or negligent in doing so. The main statute governing the illegal removal and retention of classified documents makes it a crime to “knowingly” remove and retain classified documents in an unauthorized manner.

The circumstances surrounding Biden, at least as far as is known, are separate from the separate investigation into the mishandling of classified documents at a private club and former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence.

In the Trump case, special counsel Jack Smith is investigating whether anyone tried to obstruct the investigation into the preservation of classified documents at the Palm Beach estate. Justice Department officials said Trump officials did not fully comply with a subpoena demanding the return of classified records, prompting agents to return home with a search warrant so they could gather more material.