WASHINGTON (AP) – The FBI searched US President Joe Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Wednesday without finding any classified documents, the president’s attorney said. The agents took some handwritten notes and other material related to Biden’s time as vice president for review.
The discovery, disclosed by Biden’s personal lawyer, was the latest frustrating moment for a president who has sought to contrast his sensibility to rule-abiding with that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, who has faced criminal investigations in his handling of classified documents. are facing.
Wednesday’s search, the third for Biden’s home or office, shows that an investigation that had been quietly simmering for weeks was continuing rather than fading as Biden, who has said he was surprised by the discovery of earlier records Was, maybe there was hope.
Attorney Bob Bauer said FBI agents spent three and a half hours searching the house and “did not find any documents with classified markings.”
Biden’s lawyers revealed last month that they had searched the home without classified material. The fact that the FBI conducted its own search shows its determination to find such documents rather than rely on the Justice Department’s assurances that it will retrieve any and all potentially classified items.
Bauer sought to portray the president and his team as fully transparent and cooperative. He described the search as “planned” and “another step in a thorough and timely DOJ process, one we will continue to fully support and facilitate.”
He did not name Trump, but the statement seemed aimed at separating the Biden investigation with the Trump case, where the Justice Department is trying to recover all classified records that were moved to the former president’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. Futile attempts were made to An August search warrant and ended in the removal of nearly three dozen boxes of documents and other items.
Searches of Biden’s former office and Delaware homes, by contrast, have been conducted voluntarily and without a warrant.
US President Joe Biden walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on January 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
The latest search followed the FBI’s 13-hour, top-to-bottom investigation of Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home, where agents found classified documents marking his time as a vice president and senator and some of his handwritten notes. The notes were also taken into their possession. ,
A week ago, Biden’s personal attorneys revealed they had found a document with classified markings during a search of the Wilmington property, but said they did not find others during a separate inspection of the Rehoboth Beach home.
The White House did not disclose the Justice Department’s investigation until last month, when it acknowledged the discovery of a “small number” of classified documents by Biden lawyers on November 2 as they closed an office affiliated with a think tank at the Penn Biden Center. Had done it. Ivy League School.
Although officials did not say so at the time, The Associated Press and other news organizations reported Tuesday that the FBI had conducted a voluntary search of that office later that month.
The Justice Department declined to comment on Wednesday’s finding.
Biden’s lawyers have called the retention of the records a “mistake”. The Justice Department has historically brought criminal charges related to mishandling of classified records only when it can establish, inter alia, that a person acted willfully in improperly deleting or storing sensitive records. .
Former US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the South Carolina Statehouse on January 28, 2023 in Columbia, South Carolina. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
The Biden documents are being investigated by a special counsel, Robert Hur, a former senior Justice Department official who served as the top federal prosecutor in Baltimore during the Trump administration. He begins his job this week, inheriting a months-long investigation already being conducted by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors.
Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned U.S. Attorney John Losch in Chicago to conduct a preliminary review before announcing Hur’s appointment last month.
In a separate effort ahead of the Biden probe, special counsel Jack Smith is probing Trump’s retention of nearly 300 documents with classified markings that were moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago. The Justice Department said agents obtained a search warrant last August to recover the classified documents after months of resistance by Trump and his representatives to return the records to the government.
Investigators in the Biden case have already conducted interviews, including with Biden’s former executive assistant who helped oversee the packing of boxes going to the Penn Biden Center. It is not yet clear if and when the Justice Department may question Biden himself.
In June 2017, months after leaving the vice presidency, the Bidens purchased their Rehoboth Beach home, which overlooks a state park adjacent to the beach.
