There are new searches in the affair surrounding the discovery of secret government documents by Joe Biden: now the focus is on the US President’s beach house.
During a search of US President Joe Biden’s weekend home on Wednesday, investigators found no classified documents. This was announced by one of Biden’s lawyers, Bob Bauer. The search in the community of Rehoboth in the state of Delaware took place in agreement with the lawyers. As with the search of Biden’s home in January, some materials and handwritten notes were taken that may be related to Biden’s tenure as vice president.
In the past few weeks, confidential documents have repeatedly appeared in Biden’s private rooms – in the office in Washington and in his private house in Wilmington in the state of Delaware, including in the garage there. In January, investigators searched Biden’s home in Wilmington.
Several US media reported on Tuesday that the FBI had already searched a former Biden office in the capital Washington in mid-November after its employees found confidential documents from Biden’s time as US Vice President there in early November. It was unclear whether additional documents were discovered during the FBI search, it said. The search was carried out in cooperation with Biden’s team, a search warrant was not requested.
Criticism of Biden and the White House
The first tranche of confidential documents was discovered on November 2 – shortly before the US congressional elections. The White House emphasizes that Biden’s lawyers immediately informed the National Archives. However, the public only found out about it in January when the broadcaster CBS reported about it. In response to the initial discovery, Biden’s staff then looked elsewhere.
In this case, details only gradually come to light – Biden and the White House are therefore criticized.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has now hired a special prosecutor to investigate the incidents. Biden was US Vice President from 2009 to 2017. The affair is extremely explosive for the Democrat, who wants to decide on a renewed presidential candidacy in the coming weeks or months – partly because of the parallels to his predecessor Donald Trump.
Searches at Trump
FBI agents had already searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in the state of Florida last August and confiscated numerous secret documents. In this case, a special prosecutor was appointed in November. However, there are major differences between the two cases. Biden, for example, asserts that, unlike Trump, he has cooperated with the US judiciary from the start.
A US law requires presidents and vice presidents to turn over all their emails, letters and other documents to the National Archives after leaving office. Just last week it became known that secret files had also been discovered in the house of Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence.
