Federal prosecutor reviewing classified documents found at former Biden office

A "small number" of authorities documents marked arsenic classified were recovered this autumn by lawyers for President Joe Biden successful a locked closet successful a Washington, D.C., deliberation vessel office utilized by Biden erstwhile helium was a backstage citizen, his lawyer said Monday.

The Department of Justice and the National Archives and Records Administration are reviewing the circumstances surrounding the documents, according to a connection by Richard Sauber, peculiar counsel to Biden.

Sauber said the documents look to beryllium from the Obama administration, during which Biden served arsenic vice president.

The documents, Sauber said, were recovered astatine the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Engagement connected Nov. 2.

That was astir 3 months aft FBI agents raided the Florida residence of erstwhile President Donald Trump and seized much than 100 classified authorities documents and hundreds of much records that national prosecutors accidental beryllium to the U.S. government.

Trump is the absorption of a transgression probe by the DOJ for his removal of the records from the White House successful January 2021.

By law, authorities records indispensable beryllium fixed to the National Archives erstwhile a president oregon officials successful their medication permission office.

Sauber's connection was issued aft CBS News archetypal reported the find of the records astatine the Penn Biden Center.

A root acquainted with the concern told NBC News that Attorney General Merrick Garland asked the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, John Lausch, to reappraisal however classified worldly ended up astatine the Penn Biden Center.

That task was intentionally assigned to Lausch, who was appointed to the prosecutor's bureau by Trump appointee, to debar immoderate struggle of interest, the root told NBC.

On Monday night, Trump wrote, successful a station connected his societal media site, "When is the FBI going to raid the galore homes of Joe Biden, possibly adjacent the White House?"

"These documents were decidedly not declassified," Trump wrote.

He has claimed without grounds that helium declassified records recovered astatine his Mar-a-Lago nine successful Palm Beach, Florida.

Even if Trump had declassified the records that had classified markings, helium inactive could look transgression prosecution if the DOJ finds helium apt broke the instrumentality by removing each of the records from the White House, and by obstructing efforts to retrieve them.

Biden, during an quality connected the CBS quality amusement "60 Minutes" successful September, had expressed dismay astatine an FBI photograph that showed immoderate of the authorities records recovered astatine Mar-a-Lago.

"How that could perchance happen? How anyone could beryllium that irresponsible?" Biden asked. "Totally irresponsible." 

Sauber's connection astir the Biden documents connected Monday, which was provided by the White House, said, "The documents were discovered erstwhile the President's idiosyncratic attorneys were packing files housed successful a locked closet to hole to vacate bureau abstraction astatine the" center."

"The President periodically utilized this abstraction from mid-2017 until the commencement of the 2020 campaign," Sauber said.

He added that the documents "were not the taxable of immoderate erstwhile petition oregon enquiry by the [National] Archives."

That was a pointed notation to the information that the National Archives had repeatedly asked Trump and his lawyers astir documents the bureau suspected had not been returned earlier the FBI raid astatine Mar-a-Lago.

Biden's idiosyncratic lawyers, since the find of the records, "have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice successful a process to guarantee that immoderate Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately successful the possession of the Archives," Sauber said

A source acquainted with the concern told NBC News that Biden lone became alert of the classified documents being stored successful his erstwhile bureau erstwhile helium was told by his lawyers they had discovered them.