FBI searched Biden think tank office after classified documents were found last year

FBI agents searched the bureau President Joe Biden utilized aft his vice presidency successful Washington, D.C. successful mid-November aft his lawyers archetypal discovered classified documents determination earlier that month, 2 elder instrumentality enforcement officials told NBC News.

The White House and Biden's idiosyncratic attorneys had not antecedently disclosed the hunt of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, adjacent arsenic they faced weeks of questions astir the find of classified records. CBS broke the quality of the FBI hunt connected Tuesday.

The officials told NBC that Biden's lawyers cooperated afloat with the search, and the Justice Department did not contented a hunt warrant. Biden's squad besides worked with the Justice Department successful a aboriginal FBI hunt of his Wilmington, Delaware home, for which it besides did not contented a warrant.

The president's idiosyncratic attorneys discovered documents astatine the deliberation vessel bureau connected Nov. 2. The attorneys notified the National Archives, starring to an probe by the Justice Department. But the White House did not disclose the improvement until it was reported connected Jan. 9.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced connected Jan. 12 that helium appointed Robert Hur, a erstwhile U.S. attorney, arsenic special counsel to investigate.

Biden's attorneys aboriginal found much documents astatine the president's home successful Wilmington, Delaware, connected Dec. 20, prompting a hunt of the location by FBI agents connected Jan. 20. Biden's idiosyncratic lawyers said Justice Department investigators recovered much than fractional a twelve further documents, immoderate marked classified, successful the search. The documents discovered scope from his Senate tenure to his clip arsenic vice president nether erstwhile President Barack Obama.

Former President Donald Trump is besides facing a peculiar counsel probe for failing to crook implicit classified documents. His Florida Mar-a-Lago location was searched by FBI agents successful aboriginal August. Unlike Biden, who agreed to fto agents successful to search, the Justice Department served Trump a hunt warrant aft a backmost and forth.

Last week, it was besides reported that Trump's Vice President Mike Pence besides had classified documents successful his location successful Indiana.