The FBI is conducting a planned search Wednesday of President Joe Biden's second Delaware home in Rehoboth Beach as part of its investigation into the potential mishandling of classified documents, the president's personal lawyer said.
The search of the home that overlooks a state park follows a 13-hour, top-to-bottom review of his Wilmington, Del., home on Jan. 20.
There, agents located additional documents with classified markings and also took possession of some of Biden's handwritten notes.
The president has been voluntarily allowing the Justice Department into his residences as investigators seek to determine how classified documents from Biden's time as vice-president and a senator wound up in his home and office.
The probe followed the Nov. 2 discovery of documents with classified markings by Biden's lawyers as they closed up an office at the Penn Biden Center, a think-tank affiliated with the Ivy League school.
Documents were also found at his Wilmington home by his personal lawyers, who initiated a search after the Penn Biden Center documents were discovered.
The FBI also searched the Penn Biden Center in November following the initial discovery of documents there, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
"Under DOJ's standard procedures, in the interests of operational security and integrity, it sought to do this work without advance public notice, and we agreed to co-operate," said the statement from Biden's lawyer, Bob Bauer.
Not clear if more documents found
"The search today is a further step in a thorough and timely DOJ process we will continue to fully support and facilitate. We will have further information at the conclusion of today's search."
An FBI spokeswoman referred comment to the Justice Department. A spokesman there did not immediately return a message seeking comment. It was not immediately clear whether any additional classified documents were found.
The Biden documents probe is being handled by a special counsel, Robert Hur, the former top federal prosecutor in Baltimore. He is starting his work this week, inheriting a months-long investigation already undertaken by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors.
The Bidens purchased the home in June 2017, months after he left the vice-presidency.
In January, the U.S. National Archives asked former U.S. presidents and vice-presidents to recheck their personal records for any classified documents following the news that President Joe Biden and former vice-president Mike Pence had such documents in their possession.
The Archives sent a letter to representatives of former presidents and vice-presidents extending back to Ronald Reagan to ensure compliance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA), according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.
The act states that any records created or received by the president are the property of the U.S. government and will be managed by the Archives at the end of an administration.
Biden's lawyers came across classified documents from his time as vice-president in a locked cabinet as they were packing up an office he no longer uses in November 2022.
Since then, subsequent searches by the FBI and Biden's lawyers have turned up more documents.
