WASHINGTON — FBI agents searched President Biden’s Delaware vacation house Wednesday for improperly stored classified documents as part of a broadening investigation.
The search of the Rehoboth beach house comes 12 days after the FBI searched Biden’s other Delaware home — in Wilmington — and found sensitive records from his vice presidency and Senate years.
Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, said the “planned search” was done with the president’s “full support and cooperation” from 8:30 a.m. until noon and that “[n]o documents with classified markings were found.”
However, Bauer added that “[c]onsistent with the process in Wilmington, the [Justice Department] took for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as Vice President.”
Bauer said “[t]he search today is a further step in a thorough and timely DOJ process we will continue to fully support and facilitate. We will have further information at the conclusion of today’s search.
White House lawyer Richard Sauber said in a Jan. 12 statement that Biden’s team did its own search and that “[n]o documents were found in the Rehoboth Beach residence.”
However, Sauber also said no additional mishandled records were at the president’s Wilmington home — before the FBI on Jan. 20 found an unspecified number of additional materials.
Special counsel Robert Hur is investigating whether Biden or anyone in his orbit illegally mishandled classified documents dating to before he took office as president.
The latest on President Biden’s classified docs scandal
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- Frustrated Biden has ‘no regrets’ over hiding classified docs until after midterm elections
- Hunter Biden wrote he ‘quarantined’ at Delaware house where classified docs were stored
Biden most recently visited Rehoboth the weekend of Jan. 20-23 — apparently avoiding his “weekend White House” in Wilmington due to the ongoing search there.
Both of Biden’s Delaware homes lacked Secret Service protection for several months following his vice presidency — leaving any sensitive records vulnerable to intruders, as well as unattended guests.
Biden acknowledged Jan. 12 that some classified records were found next to his classic Corvette in his Wilmington garage, but defended his handling of those documents.
“My Corvette is in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,” he said at the time.
First son Hunter Biden, who is under investigation by the US attorney’s office in Delaware for possible tax fraud and illegal foreign lobbying, among other crimes, frequently visited the Wilmington house — and even listed it as his residence on a 2018 form — while records were stashed there and as he pursued business interests around the world, including in China.