The FBI is raiding President Joe Biden’s home in Rehoboth, Delaware, as part of an investigation into classified documents, his attorney said. In a statement, Biden’s attorneys said the investigation was “planned” with the president’s “full support.” CBS reports that the investigation is related to a broader investigation into the handling of classified documents. The FBI has not commented on the search. Since it was consensual, no search warrant was required. Biden’s attorney, Bob Bauer, said, “the search was conducted without prior notice for operational security and integrity.”
The search is the latest in a series carried out at various locations after classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center – an office space – in Washington DC in November. This was not made public at the time. More documents were discovered at another of Mr. Biden’s homes in Wilmington, Delaware, in searches conducted in December and January. The precise number of classified records recovered remains unclear – although at least a dozen were found during the January searches alone. Mr. Biden has said his team did “what they should have done” by alerting officials immediately, and that they are “cooperating fully and completely” with the investigation.
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence have also been embroiled in controversy over the handling of classified documents. In Mr. Pence’s case, a “small number of documents bearing classified markings” were found at his home in Carmel, Indiana, according to a letter sent to the National Archives by his lawyer. The documents were recovered by the FBI from a safe at the property on 19 January, with two boxes more delivered to the Archives on 23 January.
But now, while Biden’s lawyers point to multiple Biden properties being searched, there is no indication that the FBI has searched Trump’s homes in New Jersey and New York.
