Jan. 11 (UPI) — An additional batch of classified documents from Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president has been uncovered during a search by his aides, according to several reports citing unnamed sources.
The discovery comes after it was revealed earlier this week that documents bearing classified markings from Biden’s time as vice president during the Obama administration had been found in an office he used at the Penn Biden Center think tank after leaving the White House.
The first batch of some 10 documents were reported to the White House by his counsel in November.
Unnamed sources told CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post that aides to the president found the second stash of documents as they have been conducting searches of various locations following the discovery of the first batch on Nov. 2.
It was unclear exactly when and where the new documents were found.
NBC News was the first to report on the latest discovery of documents.
Following the initial revelation, Biden on Tuesday told reporters that he was “surprised” to learn that a batch of documents had been found at his previous office.
Biden told reporters that the documents were found in a box by lawyers who were cleaning out his old office.
“They did what they should have done: They immediately called the archives, turned them over to the archives,” he said, adding he does not know the contents of the documents.
He said he is fully cooperating with investigators. The Times and NBC News both reported that Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned U.S. Attorney John Lausch to review the case.
Classified records are to be stored in a secure location due to national security risks, and are to be turned over to the National Archives following the end of an administration under the Presidential Records Act.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday would not tell reporters during a press conference when Biden was briefed on the discovery of the documents.
“I’m not going to go beyond what the president shared yesterday,” she said. “It is an ongoing process, we’re going to respect the process. As the president said, his team handled it the right way, and we’re just not going to get ahead of the process from here.”
The discovery has armed Republicans with rhetorical ammunition to attack Democrats amid a Justice Department investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged monthslong refusal to hand over more than 100 documents with classified markings.
The documents were found during an FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Florida resort in the summer after he failed to comply with a subpoena to hand them over to the government.
Republicans have accused Biden and the Democrats of hypocrisy, with Rep. Lauren Boebert, a far-right Republican for Colorado, asking on Twitter: “How many more batches of classified documents need to be found before Biden gets raided by the FBI?”
On Tuesday, the House oversight committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, called on the National Archives and Records Administration as well as the White House Counsel’s Office for more information on Biden’s failure to return the documents.
Comer said he is concerned about potential political bias in the NARA’s application of the Presidential Records Act and treatment of classified documents held by Trump and Biden.
“The Committee expects President Biden will receive equal treatment under the law given that he maintained classified documents in his unsecured office for several years with access to an unknown number of people,” Comer wrote in the letter to the White House counsel.
