FBI searches President Biden’s home over classified documents
The FBI is searching President Joe Biden’s home in Rehoboth, Delaware, as part of an investigation into classified documents, his lawyer says.
In a statement, Mr Biden’s attorney said the search was “planned” with the president’s “full support”.
CBS has reported that the investigation relates to a wider probe into the handling of classified documents.
The FBI has not commented on the search. As it was consensual, no search warrant was sought.
Mr Biden’s lawyer, Bob Bauer, said the search was carried out “without advance public notice” in the interests of “operational security and integrity”.
The search is the latest in a series carried out at various locations, after classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Centre – an office space – in Washington DC in November. This was not made public at the time.
More documents were discovered at another of Mr Biden’s homes in Wilmington, Delaware, in searches conducted in December and January.
The precise number of classified records recovered remains unclear – although at least a dozen were found during the January searches alone.
Mr Biden has said his team did “what they should have done” by alerting officials immediately, and that they are “co-operating fully and completely” with the investigation.
After the first of January’s searches, Mr Biden told reporters the files were in a locked garage.
“It’s not like they are sitting in the street,” he said.
The latest search comes a day after special counsel, Robert Hur, officially began his duties overseeing the probe into the documents.
President Donald Trump and former Vice President, Mike Pence, have also been embroiled in controversy over the handling of classified documents.
In Mr Pence’s case, a “small number of documents bearing classified markings” were found at his home in Carmel, Indiana, according to a letter sent to the National Archives by his lawyer. —BBC
