The US Justice Department has raided US President Joe Biden’s beach home in Delaware for classified documents, his lawyer said Wednesday.
“We have agreed to cooperate,” Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, said in a statement, saying more information would be made public after the search was completed.
Earlier, the Justice Department raided the Democratic president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and the offices he used.
Secret documents were also found in the homes of former Republican President Donald Trump and his former Vice President Mike Pence.
Biden promised to cooperate with the search, and Pence said he was taking responsibility for the documents found. Trump has resisted attempts to recover materials in his possession, prompting the FBI to search his Florida home and resort last year.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed two separate special advisers to review Trump and Biden’s handling of such documents as they both monitor the 2024 presidential election.
In the meantime, the National Archives has reportedly asked all former US presidents and vice presidents to look through their personal records for classified documents or other presidential material that should have been handed over when they left office.
It is illegal to knowingly or intentionally remove or retain classified material, although no current or former president or vice president has been charged with a misdemeanor.
Former President Donald Trump, who is also under investigation for his handling of classified documents and whose Florida residence was raided by FBI agents in August, wrote on social media shortly after the finds: “When is the FBI going to search Joe’s many homes? Biden, maybe even the White House? These documents have definitely not been declassified.”
Unlike Biden, who voluntarily cooperated with the Justice Department after about a dozen documents emerged, Trump repeatedly thwarted requests from the National Archives to return more than 150 documents to which he was not entitled.
After months of fruitless attempts by the government to return documents, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was finally searched with a warrant. Searches at Biden’s addresses took place voluntarily, without a warrant.
