The White House said on Saturday that it had discovered more sensitive documents at Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, increasing political and legal pressure on the US president.
In a statement, Richard Sauber, Biden’s special counsel, said he found five pages of classified material in a room near the garage of the president’s Wilmington home, in addition to those disclosed earlier this week.
The new disclosure comes after the White House on Monday said it had discovered classified government records in a private office used by Biden in Washington. On Thursday it was revealed that some small papers were also found in the main house in Delaware.
The emergence of new classified documents in Biden’s possession prompted Merrick Garland, the attorney general, on Thursday to appoint a special counsel to investigate his handling of the documents.
The discovery of the classified documents raises questions about the competence of Biden and his staff to handle sensitive government material during the presidential transition between the Obama administration and the Trump administration in 2017.
The classified material dates from Biden’s tenure as vice president between 2009 and 2017.
The president also faced criticism for not announcing the findings sooner. The initial documents in Biden’s personal office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington were discovered on November 2, a few days before the midterm elections. A second batch at his Wilmington home was found on December 20, but the White House only announced the discovery this week, following an initial report from CBS News.
On Saturday, Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal lawyer, published a timeline of the findings and justified the delay in public disclosure, saying the president’s aides are trying to “balance the importance of public transparency against the norms and limits established to protect the integrity of the investigation”.
Bauer said that “the identification of witnesses, or specific documents, or events, can complicate the ability of the authorities to conduct a review to obtain information ready, and in an uncompromised form”.
He added that “continuing public disclosure also entails the risk that, as further information develops, the answers provided periodically may be incomplete”.
The White House said it was cooperating with the justice department and kept Biden aides informed of the findings at every stage.
The discovery of classified documents in Biden’s hands comes as former president Donald Trump faces a criminal investigation into his handling of classified papers from his time in the White House. Trump’s case is very different, as he has for months refused to hand over material stored at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida, which led to a raid by FBI agents on his home last August.
Garland also appointed a special counsel to investigate Trump’s handling of classified material, as well as his role in the January 6 uprising.