No classified documents were found in an FBI search of US President Joe Biden’s vacation house in his home state of Delaware, according to his attorney.
The Wednesday search at Biden’s Rehoboth home was carried out in the wake of classified documents turning up at addresses connected with the president.
The search was conducted from 8.30 a.m. (1330GMT) until noon (1700GMT), Biden’s personal attorney Bob Bauer said in a statement.
“No documents with classified markings were found,” he said.
“Consistent with the process in Wilmington, the DOJ (Department of Justice) took for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as Vice President.”
In an earlier statement, Bauer said the search was being carried out with “the President’s full support and cooperation.”
“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 cooperate,” he said.
“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,” he added.
The search comes amid a special counsel investigation into several classified documents which were discovered at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware and private office in Washington D.C. late last year and in January.
The documents found last year at Biden’s home and office reportedly included US intelligence memos and briefing materials dated between 2013 and 2016 – when he was vice president – related to Ukraine, Iran, and the UK.
Former President Donald Trump, who is also under investigation over his handling of classified documents and whose Florida residence was searched by FBI agents in August, wrote on social media shortly after the findings: “When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House? These documents were definitely not declassified.”
Unlike Biden, who has voluntarily cooperated with the Justice Department after about a dozen documents emerged, Trump repeatedly obstructed requests from the National Archives to return over 150 documents he was not authorized to have.
After months of fruitless government attempts to get back the documents, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was finally searched with a warrant. The searches of Biden’s addresses have come voluntarily, without a warrant.
Biden’s family moved to Delaware from Pennsylvania when he was 10, and he spent 36 years as a senator representing the state.
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