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BIDEN 'SURPRISED' ABOUT CLASSIFIED FILES DISCOVERY AT FORMER OFFICE

Published
11 January

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Media caption,

Watch: Biden cooperating with classified document review

President Joe Biden has said he was surprised to learn in November that
classified files had been found at his former private office.

"I don't know what's in the documents," he said, indicating his lawyers had
advised him not to ask about the contents.

The papers, discovered at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, reportedly
contain briefings on foreign countries.

A Republican congressional committee says it will investigate.

The oversight panel "is concerned that President Biden has compromised
[intelligence] sources", James Comer, its chairman, said.

The US justice department is also reviewing the matter.



Mr Comer, who represents a Kentucky district, has asked the White House to turn
over its documents and communications related to the classified materials.

In its request, which is not a legal summons, it also wants a list of people who
had access to the office space, by 24 January.

In Mexico City, where he was attending a summit, Mr Biden told reporters on
Tuesday that he was "co-operating fully with the review."

The documents relate to his time as vice-president, his lawyer has said, but
their level of classification or why they were there is unclear.

Citing a source familiar with the matter, CNN reports that the 10 classified
files include US intelligence memos and briefing materials covering topics
including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom.

They were found at a private office he used from 2017 to 2020 as it was being
cleared out by one of his lawyers, in a manila folder that was labelled
"personal", according to CNN.


Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
The office was at the Penn Biden Centre

A source familiar with the matter has told the BBC's US partner CBS News that
the batch did not contain nuclear secrets.

The documents were found on 2 November last year, days before the US midterm
elections, in a locked closet

Officials are reportedly investigating whether there are additional classified
files in other locations tied to Mr Biden.

Mr Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, faces his own justice department probe for
taking sensitive materials to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, after his
presidency.

Republicans, who recently took over the US House of Representatives and have
pledged to investigate the Biden administration, have accused the president of
hypocrisy.

In September, President Biden appeared on CBS and, when asked for his reaction
to the documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago, said it was "totally irresponsible".



There are, however, key differences between Mr Biden and Mr Trump's cases.

 * How Biden-Trump secret files cases are different

Mr Trump's inquiry deals with more than 300 documents with classified markings,
including 18 marked top secret.

Federal prosecutors allege that Mr Trump's legal team did not adequately
co-operate with the National Archives to properly return the documents,
prompting a historic FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago estate last August.

The White House said Mr Biden's lawyers alerted the National Archives as soon as
they recovered the materials and the agency retrieved the materials the next
morning.

According to CBS News, the FBI is involved in the inquiry and US Attorney
General Merrick Garland has been asked to review the papers.

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Media caption,

Watch: Trump supporters upset with FBI search

Mr Trump has been commenting on the matter on his social media site, Truth
Social.

"Why didn't the 'Justice' Department announce the Highly Classified documents
found in the Biden Office before the Election?" he posted on Tuesday.

"A V.P. cannot Declassify documents," he said in another post, adding: "A
President, me, can Declassify."

Neither the Penn Biden Center nor National Archives immediately commented.


RELATED TOPICS

 * White House
 * US politics
 * United States
 * Joe Biden


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