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U.S. President Joe Biden’s lawyer said the FBI found no classified documents during a search of his Hobbs, Delaware, home.
In a statement, Biden’s attorney said Wednesday’s search was “planned” with the “full support” of the president.
The nearly four-hour search is part of a broader investigation into the handling of classified documents.
The FBI has not yet commented on the search. Since this was consensual, no search warrant was issued.
Biden’s attorney, Bob Bauer, said the search was conducted “without prior notice to the public” for the “safety and integrity of the operation.”
Ball said the search ran from 8:30 to 12:00 local time and “found no documents marked as classified”.
Ball also said that what appeared to be “material and handwritten notes” from Biden’s time as vice president from 2009 to 2017 were taken away for “further review.”
It is the latest in a series of searches at multiple locations following the discovery of classified documents in the offices of the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania in Washington, D.C., in November. This was not made public at the time.
Additional documents were found at another Biden residence in Wilmington, Delaware, during searches in December and January.
While at least a dozen classified documents were uncovered in the January search alone, it’s unclear exactly how many classified documents were uncovered.
Biden said his team did “what they were supposed to do” by notifying officials immediately and that they were cooperating fully with the investigation.
After the first raid in January, Biden told reporters the documents were locked in a garage.
“They’re not on the street,” he said.
The latest raid comes a day after special counsel Robert Hur officially began overseeing the investigation into the documents.
Former US President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence have also been embroiled in controversy over classified documents.
In Pence’s case, a “small number of classified-marked documents” were found at his home in Carmel, Indiana, according to a letter his attorney sent to the National Archives and Records Administration. On Jan. 19, the FBI recovered the documents from a safe at the property. On January 23, two more boxes of documents were sent to the National Archives.
In August 2022, China’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida found dozens of boxes and about 11,000 documents, about 100 of which were marked as classified.
Before the search warrant was issued, Trump’s attorney said all government records had been returned. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed he had declassified the documents he had with him.
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By Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America correspondent
The Justice Department’s search of Biden’s vacation home has added a new twist to a nearly month-long saga of classified documents that is now being overseen by a special counsel.
The FBI’s move could reveal how promptly and thoroughly Biden’s team was reviewing documents stored at his personal residence. For the most part, Biden’s lawyers have been conducting their own inspections of the president’s private residences, without the close watch of government investigators. While they found classified material at the president’s Wilmington home, they said no such documents were found at the president’s beachside residence.
At the very least, the search would help quell some concerns expressed by Republicans that the administration is subjecting Biden to less scrutiny and suspicion than Trump. Last August, the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. When Biden’s lawyers first revealed that they had found classified material at Biden’s home and private office, former president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other conservatives publicly questioned why the current president hadn’t been in the administration target of investigators.
But now Biden’s defenders point out that multiple of Biden’s properties have been searched, but there is no indication that the FBI has investigated Trump’s New Jersey and New York homes.