Biden Aides Reportedly Uncover Second Batch of Classified Docs in POTUS’ Private Office

22:00 GMT, 11 January 2023

Fantine Gardinier

Following reports earlier this week of the discovery of several classified files among the personal papers at US President Joe Biden’s private office, his aides have reportedly uncovered a second batch of documents in another office used by the president.

Sputnik

The reports, which appeared in US media on Wednesday afternoon and were credited to “a person familiar with the matter,” claimed that more classified documents had been found in a different location than the private office where the first batch of documents had been found.

The reports gave no indication as to the number or degree of classification of the files, the precise location of their discovery, or the time of their discovery.

The previous report, which only hit headlines on Monday, was based on a discovery made in early November. Aides to the president found 10 classified documents among a group of other personal files and reported them to the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The files were dated to the time period when Biden was US vice president and allegedly concerned Iran, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine.

The White House has confirmed the discovery of a “small number of documents” marked as classified at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, saying on Monday that Biden was cooperating with NARA, and that Attorney General Merrick Garland had appointed a US attorney to look into the matter.

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The administration has not issued a statement about the reports of a second batch of files.

Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, has also drawn criticism for the discovery of classified files in his possession dating to his time as US president; however, he has so far refused to fully cooperate with the NARA and Department of Justice probes. While Trump returned some files to NARA in January of last year after the agency requested them, the DOJ believed other missing files to still be in his possession, and ordered an FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August, which turned up hundreds more.

Trump has called the raid a “witch hunt,” claiming the files were all declassified when he left office and that the investigation was an attempt to foul his 2024 presidential campaign.