House investigating documents found in Biden’s old office

The Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Wednesday was investigating documents marked as classified that were found at President Joe Biden’s old office. Committee chairman James Comer wrote Tuesday to White House Counsel Stuart Delery requesting documents for the investigation. Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee is seeking a damage assessment of the situation from U.S. intelligence agencies. Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner wrote that Biden’s retention of the documents could potentially violate the Espionage Act and Presidential Records Act.

What has Biden said? Biden said Tuesday that he was “surprised” to learn that there were any classified documents at his old office space. His lawyers told him not to ask what was in the documents, he said, and they are cooperating fully with the investigation. The White House has said that Biden’s attorneys found the documents while cleaning out his old workspace on Nov. 2 and immediately turned the documents over to the National Archives. 

Dig deeper: Read Leo Briceno and Carolina Lumetta’s report in The Stew on the investigation of classified documents found in former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.