White House facing 'grim realization' after Biden team turns over secret docs

The discovery of classified documents at a private office used by President Joe Biden could complicate the investigation into similar documents found at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, according to a new report from Politico

Classified documents from the time when Biden was serving as Barack Obama's vice president have been found at a Washington think tank that he sometimes used as office space, the White House said Monday.

Lawyers for Biden discovered the documents last November while clearing out the office space and handed them over to the National Archives, which handles all such materials, Biden's special counsel Richard Sauber said.

"The White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice," Sauber said in a statement.

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Sauber described it as "a small number of documents with classified markings" that were found at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. He said they were in a locked closet at the time.

"The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry" and since handing them over, Biden's attorneys have also cooperated "to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives," he said.

CNN reported Tuesday that Biden and his team are now “facing sharp new questions as he prepares for a summit” with world leaders in Mexico City.

Biden and his legal team do not know what classified documents were found in his private office, CNN reported. But sources told CNN that the materials include top-secret files with the “sensitive compartmented information” designation.

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According to Politico, “a grim realization” has “set in around the West Wing that the discovery complicates the politics — if not the legal case — surrounding the documents found at Mar-a-Lago.”

CBS News reported that Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned the US attorney in Chicago to review the documents and that the FBI is also investigating. According to the report, about 10 documents are involved and an unidentified source familiar with them said none contain nuclear secrets.

In August, authorities searched ex-president Donald Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago after he failed to respond to repeated requests for cooperation on retrieving documents taken from the White House after his 2020 election loss.

The FBI found thousands of government documents, including more than 100 that were marked classified, and some marked top secret in the ex-president's Florida club. Subjects covered in the documents reportedly included sensitive intelligence on China and Iran, and nuclear secrets.

"When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House? These documents were definitely not declassified," Trump said in a brief statement after the discovery of the documents at the think tank emerged Monday.

In a statement, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland highlighted what he considers to be important differences between the two cases.

“Attorneys for President Biden appear to have taken immediate and proper action to notify the National Archives about their discovery of a small handful of classified documents found in a locked cabinet at the Penn Biden Center so they could be returned to federal government custody," said Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

"I have confidence that the Attorney General took the appropriate steps to ensure the careful review of the circumstances surrounding the possession and discovery of these documents and make an impartial decision about any further action that may be needed.”

With additional reporting by AFP