On Thursday, Joe Biden acknowledged that a document with classified markings from his time as vice president was found in his “personal library” at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, The Associated Press (AP) reports.
Biden addressed the documents in response to a question from the Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy, who asked, “Classified documents next to your Corvette? What were you thinking?”
The newly discovered set of classified documents was found days after it was disclosed that sensitive documents were also found at the office of his former institute in Washington.
Biden told White House reporters that he was “cooperating fully and completely” with a Justice Department investigation into how classified information and government records were stored, AP notes.
The former Vice President did not say when the latest series of documents were found, though he did indicate that his lawyers’ review of potential storage locations was completed Wednesday night.
It’s worth noting that lawyers had found the first set on Nov 2, just days before the midterm elections, but only revealed that information to the public only on Monday.
In September 2022, Biden said the discovery of top-secret documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate raised concerns that sensitive data had been compromised and called it “irresponsible.”
At the time, Biden told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that when he heard about classified documents taken from the White House, he wondered how “anyone could be that irresponsible.”
“And I thought, what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods?” he added.
Later Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned a special counsel to investigate Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
The investigation will be led by former Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Maryland Robert Hur.
“The extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” said Garland. “This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law.”
