Last weekend, House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) said the committee would be looking into what he described as the White House’s “alarming” secrecy and slow disclosure of the classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center in Washington DC and in President Biden’s Wilmington home.
Classified documents were initially discovered in the Penn Biden Center on November 2, 2022. But the White House did not disclose the discovery until two weeks ago. Additionally, classified documents were found in the garage of Biden’s Wilmington home on December 20. Subsequently, additional classified records were found in the library of the president’s home on January 12.
In a press release on January 14, Congressman Comer described the White House’s secrecy over the discovery as “alarming.” He said it was also alarming that aides for the president continued to comb through documents “knowing there would be a Special Counsel appointed.”
Given the questions surrounding the matter, Comer said “oversight is coming.” After the third set of classified records was found, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that he had appointed a special counsel to investigate the matter.
Garland announced that Robert Hur, the former Trump-appointed US Attorney in Maryland, will take over US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch, who had previously been assigned by the DOJ to investigate the classified documents found.
Over the weekend, Fox News reported that the Justice Department had conducted a search of Biden’s Wilmington home on Friday during which even more classified documents were found.
DOJ seizes more classified docs from Biden’s Wilmington home after 12-hour FBI search | Fox News
Joseph Fitzpatrick, an Assistant US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, told Fox that the FBI conducted a “consensual search” of Biden’s Wilmington home from 9:45 am until 10:30 pm on Friday, December 20. In a statement Saturday, the president’s attorney Bob Bauer said the search covered “all working, living, and storage areas.”
The documents retrieved included classified records dating from Joe Biden’s time in the Senate as well as records from his time as vice president.
