Classified documents found at Biden think tank

WASHINGTON - A special counsel to US President Joe Biden said on Monday that classified documents had been found at a private office here used while he was vice-president.

White House special counsel Richard Sauber said the documents were discovered "when Biden's attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC."

The Penn Biden Center is a think tank not far from the White House, affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania and named for Biden.

Sauber said Biden, a Democrat, periodically used this space from mid-2017 until the start of his 2020 presidential campaign.

The discovery of "what appears to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified markings" was made on Nov. 2, 2022.

On that day, the White House Counsel's office notified the National Archives, which took possession of the materials the following morning, said Sauber.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland reportedly tasked the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch Jr. with reviewing the matter.

The US Department of Justice is also investigating former President Donald Trump's handling of a trove of classified documents seized from his estate in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, by federal agents in the summer of 2022.

Trump, a Republican, responded to the news of classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center, posting Monday on social media that "when is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?"

The Presidential Records Act requires all presidential and vice-presidential documents to be turned over to the National Archives.