Biden aides find more classified files

Aides to US President Joe Biden have discovered another batch of classified documents, according to a report citing a person familiar with the matter.

NBC News reported that the documents were found at a different location from those discovered in November in an office Biden had used during his time with the think tank Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. The discovery of those documents was first reported by CBS News on Monday.

News about the documents in Biden's possession comes a few months after reports on former US president Donald Trump's handling of classified documents. After a monthslong dispute between Trump and the Justice Department, FBI agents executed a search warrant in August on Trump's Mara-Lago estate in Florida to gather any classified documents.

In November, US Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed prosecutor Jack Smith as a special counsel to investigate whether Trump violated federal law when he took classified documents after leaving the White House in early 2021.

To review the discovery of classified documents allegedly held by Biden, Garland has appointed US Attorney John R. Lausch Jr, who served in the Trump administration.

The latest news has elicited complaints by Republicans of the double standards in how the Trump and Biden document cases have been handled.

"Attorney General Merrick Garland must appoint a special counsel," US Representative Troy Nehls tweeted on Wednesday.

Demanding access

Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has asked on Tuesday for a briefing on the first Biden document discovery.

A spokesperson for Senator Marco Rubio, the committee's vice-chair, said Rubio and Warner had written to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, asking for access to the classified documents.

US Representative Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote on Twitter: "Look how President Trump was treated when it came to so-called 'classified' documents at his home. Now look at how President Biden is being treated for having classified documents at the Biden Center."

In a letter to Garland on Wednesday, Senator Josh Hawley wrote: "Please provide a full explanation of the (Justice) Department's decision not to dispatch FBI agents to search the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement for classified documents dating back to the Obama Administration."

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked several times about the documents. "At this time, I'm not going beyond what the president said yesterday," she said at a press briefing. "It's an ongoing process. We're going to respect the process."

Agencies contributed to this story.