WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Aides to President Joe Biden have discovered additional documents containing classification markings belonging to the president in a second location.
The classification level, number and precise location of the additional documents were not immediately clear.
The revelation comes days after an attorney for the president said Biden’s lawyers had discovered a “small number” of classified documents at his former office space in Washington.
Earlier this week, the White House confirmed that the Department of Justice was reviewing “a small number of documents with classified markings” found at the office. Biden’s attorneys had discovered the documents at the offices of the Penn Biden Center and then immediately called the National Archives about the discovery, the White House said. Biden kept an office there after he left the vice presidency in 2017 until shortly before he launched his Democratic presidential campaign in 2019.
NewsNation reached out to the offices of all living former presidents, asking whether they were aware of any lingering documents, but only one responded.
“That intensively thorough process was conducted before he left the White House when all of his presidential records – classified and unclassified – were turned over to the National Archives,” said Freddy Ford, chief of staff of the office of George W. Bush
Biden has said he was “surprised to learn” that documents were found, but his lawyers “did what they should have done” when they immediately called the National Archives.
This new discovery has prompted a new round of calls for investigation and inquiries.
House Oversight Chairman Jim Comer sent two letters to the White House, following both incidents, asking for all of the documents Biden aides handed over to the National Archives.
“Failing to disclose violations by President Biden to committee Republicans and the American public raises concerns about inconsistent policy and procedures at the agency that creates the appearance of political bias,” Comer wrote in his second letter.
When asked if former President Donald Trump and the Biden classified documents will be investigated equally, the same way, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana said: “I think the American people see that double standard, and that raises a lot more questions. You’ve seen a very one-sided set of investigations; it’s time we start looking at things that have been ignored for too long.”
The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee has requested that the U.S. intelligence community conduct a “damage assessment” of potentially classified documents.
The revelation also may complicate the Justice Department’s consideration of whether to bring charges against Trump, a Republican who is trying to win back the White House in 2024 and has repeatedly claimed the department’s inquiry into his own conduct amounted to “corruption.”
There are significant differences between the Trump and Biden situations, including the gravity of an ongoing grand jury investigation into the Mar-a-Lago matter.
