WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Months after the Biden administration’s FBI carried out an unprecedented raid on former U.S. President Donald Trump’s home in search of classified documents, Joe Biden’s attorneys admitted Monday that Biden himself had stored confidential documents from his time as vice president in a private office.
Biden told reporters on Tuesday that he was unaware what was in the files and said he is “cooperating fully with the review.”
The government documents, which reportedly include about 10 classified files, were discovered by Biden’s attorneys as they worked to shut down a Washington, D.C. office used by Biden, CNN reported.
A source familiar with the matter told CNN on Monday that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland already asked the U.S. attorney in Chicago to review the discovered materials. The outlet said it was “unclear what the documents pertain to or why they were taken to Biden’s private office,” and noted that “[f]ederal officeholders are required by law to relinquish official documents and classified records when their government service ends.”
Surprise! Just now hearing about classified documents found in Biden’s private office last fall. Not only rich in hypocrisy, but convenient that none of this was released before the midterm elections. #doublestandardhttps://t.co/zO12XM8LBj
— Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) January 10, 2023
Biden’s special counsel, Richard Sauber, said in a statement that “[t]he White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified markings.”
Sauber said Biden had “periodically used” the office “from mid-2017 until the start of the 2020 campaign.” He said the documents were found on November 2, 2022, and that the White House Counsel’s Office alerted the National Archives. According to Sauber, the National Archives acquired the documents “the following morning.”
However, a later report suggested that the issue may have the potential to mushroom into a larger and even criminal investigation.
RELATED: Trump says ‘large group of FBI agents’ are raiding his Mar-A-Lago home
On Tuesday, CNN cited another unnamed source who reportedly told the outlet that materials recovered from the office included “U.S. intelligence memos and briefing materials that covered topics including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom.”
A law enforcement source told the outlet that AG Garland has been apprised of the situation and must determine what the next course of action will be, up to and including the potential launch of “a full-blown criminal investigation.”
Trump, who late last year announced his plans to run for a second term in the White House, responded to the news of the classified documents on his Truth Social account Monday.
“When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?” Trump asked, remarking that the discovered materials “were definitely not declassified.”
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, was raided by the FBI on August 8, 2022. During the raid, agents seized 11 boxes of documents and other items.
According to an unsealed federal search warrant, Trump was under federal investigation for alleged violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice for keeping the documents. Thus far, however, Trump has not been indicted.
RELATED: ‘Pure politics’: Former DOJ official says FBI raid part of ‘plan’ to keep Trump out of White House
Meanwhile, though left-wing writers have attempted to draw clear distinctions between Biden’s and Trump’s treatment of classified documents, some on the right are suggesting that the fact that Biden kept classified files as well could scuttle any DOJ ambitions of prosecuting Trump for the same offense.
“Glaring hypocrisy aside, it would be difficult to justify criminally charging one president while turning a blind eye to the other,” opined Greg Jarrett for Fox News. “Legally, it would boomerang. Politically, it would be poisonous.”
The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles pointed out that since only a president has the authority to declassify documents, the materials seized by the FBI at Trump’s home may have been declassified by him (as he has maintained). However, those recovered from Biden’s office could not have been declassified by him because he merely held the vice presidential office.
On Tuesday, Biden responded to questions about the discovery of the classified documents during a press conference in Mexico.
In his remarks, Biden said didn’t know what was in the files, and praised his lawyers for immediately turning over the documents to the National Archives.
“We’re cooperating fully, cooperating fully with the review, which I hope will be finished soon,” Biden said. “And there’ll be more detail at that time.”