The Justice Department is reviewing a group of potentially classified documents found in a Washington office of a think tank from Joe Biden’s time as vice president, the White House said Monday.
The president’s legal adviser, Richard Sauber, said that “a small number of documents marked as classified” were discovered as Biden’s personal lawyers cleared the offices of the Penn Biden Center.
The president held that office from leaving the vice presidency in 2017 until shortly before launching his 2020 presidential campaign in 2019. The documents were found on Nov. 2, 2022, in a “locked closet” at the office, Sauber explained.
The aide said the lawyers immediately alerted his office at the White House, which notified the National Archives and Records Administration. The entity took over the documents the next day, he added.
“Since discovery, the president’s personal lawyers have cooperated with the Archives Administration and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that all Obama-Biden administration records are in proper possession on file,” Sauber said.
A person familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss it publicly said Attorney General Merrick Garland asked US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch to review the matter after the Administration of Records referred the case to the department.
John Lausch was appointed to his post by former President Donald Trump.
The Archives Administration had not responded to requests for comment as of Monday. A message sent to the US Attorney’s Office in Chicago had also not been returned on Monday.
CBS was the first to report the discovery of the potentially classified documents.
The Justice Department has been investigating for months the retention of some 300 documents marked as classified that were recovered from former President Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
In that instance, prosecutors say, Trump’s representatives evaded requests to return them and failed to comply with a court order requesting their return.
FBI agents showed up at Mar-a-Lago last August with a search warrant and removed 15 boxes of records from the property.
Prosecutors have interviewed multiple Trump associates and are using a grand jury, or grand jury, to hear testimony.
It’s unclear when there will be a decision in that case or whether Trump or anyone else could be indicted.
The think tank, formerly known as the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania and continues to cooperate independently of the Biden administration.
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