Biden: We’re Cooperating with the Team Investigating the Breach of Classified Documents

President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was surprised to learn of the discovery of classified documents at a think tank he set up at the University of Pennsylvania. The president confirmed that he and his team are cooperating fully with Justice Department officials investigating the circumstances.

Responding to questions from reporters at a joint news conference with the leaders of Mexico and Canada, the president said he takes the issue of keeping classified documents seriously, adding that he was unaware of the contents of the materials found in the Biden Center office.

“We are fully cooperating with the audit, which I hope will be completed soon,” Biden said.

Democrat Biden faced criticism from Republicans after the Justice Department last year launched an investigation into former President Donald Trump, whose residence was found to contain several boxes of classified documents.

The circumstances in the Biden and Trump cases differ in several ways.

Biden’s lawyers discovered fewer than a dozen classified documents in the think tank’s office and reported them to the National Archives, immediately turning over the materials there and saying they were cooperating with the archives and the Justice Department.

Trump kept thousands of government documents, several hundred of them classified, at his Florida residence for more than a year after leaving the White House and did not return them immediately or voluntarily, despite numerous requests from the National Archives.

When he finally turned over 15 boxes of records in January 2022, it was discovered that more than 100 of the records were classified. The case was later turned over to the Justice Department.

Investigators tried to get Trump to return any remaining classified material in his possession through court subpoenas, and then paid a visit to the former president’s estate at Mar-a-Lago. During that visit, Trump’s advisers returned several dozen documents and assured them that no other classified material remained at the residence.

Suspecting possible obstruction of justice, the FBI requested and obtained court permission in August to search Trump’s home, where agents found more than 13,000 additional documents, about 100 of which were marked “top secret.”

In November, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to investigate the case.

To prove that a crime was committed, investigators would need evidence that Trump or his aides knowingly and intentionally retained the documents and deliberately tried to obstruct the DOJ investigation, which sought their return.

Biden periodically used the think tank’s office space beginning in mid-2017, after he ended his tenure as vice president in Barack Obama’s administration until the start of the 2020 election campaign.

Republican Congressman Mike Turner, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haynes asking him to “immediately review and assess the damage” associated with the storage of classified documents at the Biden Center.

“The discovery of classified documents could mean that President Biden has potentially violated national security laws, including the Espionage Act and the Presidential Records Retention Act,” Turner said in a statement Tuesday.

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a staunch Trump ally who leads the House Republican caucus, said the discovery of the documents raises serious questions about national security. She called the very fact that the documents were turned over to the National Archives shortly before the November midterm elections “troubling” and that the Justice Department concealed it for two months.

As the sitting president explained today, his lawyers discovered “some documents in a drawer inside a locked cabinet,” and immediately “realized that there were some classified documents in that drawer. And they did what they had to do. They immediately called the Archives.”

“I was informed of this find, and I was surprised to learn that any government documents had been delivered to this office, but I don’t know what is contained in those documents,” he said, adding that attorneys had advised him not to inquire about the contents.

“They’ve turned the boxes over to the Archives, and we’re cooperating fully with the investigation, which I hope will be completed soon. And then more details will emerge,” President Biden said.