Biden Lawyer: No Classified Docs Found in Beach House Search

UPDATE Feb 1, 2023 3:10 PM CST

Bob Bauer, President Biden's personal lawyer, says the FBI searched the president's Delaware beach house for more than three hours Wednesday and did not find any documents with classified markings—but agents "took for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as Vice President." The search of the Rehoboth Beach residence was the third known search of a property connected to Biden, CNN reports. Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House counsel’s office, declined to say Wednesday whether other properties had been searched, but he said the president "has been fully cooperative in offering unprecedented access to his home."

Feb 1, 2023 10:38 AM CST

The FBI is searching for classified documents at another of President Biden's personal properties: his Delaware beach house. Biden's personal lawyer Bob Bauer spoke of the "planned search" at the property in Rehoboth Beach on Wednesday, saying the president has given his "full support and cooperation," per the Guardian. He added the Department of Justice "sought to do this work without advance public notice, and we agreed to cooperate." CNBC reports agents didn't obtain a search warrant.

Authorities already conducted a thorough search of Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Jan. 20, finding six additional documents marked as classified, after Biden's own lawyers found classified documents there on Jan. 11. Biden's lawyers also searched the Rehoboth Beach home but reported finding nothing relevant. "The search today is a further step in a thorough and timely DOJ process we will continue to fully support and facilitate," Bauer said. "We will have further information at the conclusion of today's search."

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News of the search came a day after CBS News reported that the FBI searched Biden's former office space at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, DC, where the first classified documents tied to the president were discovered in early November; the search was conducted days after that initial discovery. The search hadn't been publicized previously. "In all, federal authorities have recovered between 25 and 30 documents marked classified from the office space and Mr. Biden's Wilmington home," per CBS. (More classified information stories.)