It was learnt that the presidential aides have been looking for additional classified materials that might be in other locations since a set of classified documents was found in November at the Washington-based think tank.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s aides have reportedly found a second batch of classified documents in a location separate from a think tank office he used after serving as vice president, Reuters has reported.
It was learnt that the presidential aides have been looking for additional classified materials that might be in other locations since a set of classified documents was found in November at the Washington-based think tank.
The classification level, quantity, and exact location of the additional documents were not immediately clear, according to an NBC News report. In addition, it was noted that it was unclear when the extra papers were found and whether the search for any other classified records Biden might have from his time as vice president was finished.
A request for comment from Reuters was not met with an immediate response from the White House.
The Democratic chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Mark Warner, said Tuesday that he had requested a briefing on the first Biden document discovery.
Senators Marco Rubio and Mark Warner wrote to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, according to a spokesperson for Rubio, the committee's Republican vice chair. They requested access to the sensitive documents.
The two senators also asked for a damage assessment from the intelligence community and a briefing from Biden and former President Donald Trump regarding the retention of classified documents.
The Republican Representative Mike Turner of the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence made a comparable request to Haines on Tuesday.
The reports come two days after a White House attorney claimed that the president's personal attorneys at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement think tank had found classified documents from Biden's time as vice president in November.
Less than a dozen classified documents were found by Biden's lawyers inside the office at the centre. They reported their find to the U.S. National Archives, handed over the documents, and stated that they were working with the Archives and the Justice Department. The president stated on Tuesday that he and his staff were fully assisting with an investigation into what transpired.
The handling of highly sensitive classified documents that Trump kept at his Florida resort after leaving the White House in January 2021 is the subject of a separate investigation by the Justice Department.
In spite of numerous requests from the National Archives, Trump did not immediately or voluntarily return thousands of government documents, some of which were marked as classified, to the government for over a year after leaving the White House.
On August 8, Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate was searched by FBI agents following a court-authorised search. Among the tens of thousands of records seized were about 100 classified documents.