Federal law enforcement officials were reportedly prepared to get a search warrant to raid President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware earlier this month if his legal team did not cooperate with an ongoing investigation into his handling of classified information.
CNN reported that while Biden’s team claims they were cooperative in dealing with the Department of Justice, federal investigators were prepared to get a search warrant if Biden did not consent to being searched.
“You want to have people looking at things, know what to look for,” a source told CNN. “Attorneys don’t collect evidence – that would be FBI. Whoever’s getting this info would have to have clearance.”
CNN described the special counsel investigation by Robert Hur as a “full-blown criminal investigation.”
Classified documents connected with Biden were first found in his private office at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C., on November 2, less than a week before the 2022 midterm elections. Since then, Biden’s attorneys have located more classified documents at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, on three separate occasions: an unspecified number found in the garage on December 20, one document found in Biden’s study on January 11, and five more found in the study on January 12.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed former U.S. Attorney Hur — who served during the Trump administration — to serve as special counsel in the investigation after the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch, who was assigned to do an initial review of the case, recommended to Garland that a special counsel be appointed.
Federal officials confirmed late Saturday night that the FBI conducted the 13-hour search of Biden’s home in Delaware on Friday where they found more classified material.
“POTUS’s lawyers offered to provide DOJ prompt access to the Wilmington home, and gave DOJ full access to it, including personally handwritten notes, memorabilia, and papers going back decades,” said Ian Sams, Special Assistant to the President & Senior Advisor to WH Counsel’s Office.
“DOJ took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President,” Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal lawyer, said in a statement. “DOJ also took for further review personally handwritten notes from the vice-presidential years.”
Former Chief Asst. U.S. Attorney Andy McCarthy tweeted that Biden really did not have a choice over whether to allow the FBI to search his home.
“Biden didn’t consent to FBI search b/c he’s Mr Cooperation. He consented b/c there was probable cause of crimes,” McCarthy said. “If he didn’t agree, next step would’ve been special counsel getting a search warrant (ie, judicial finding of probable cause). Wanted to avoid that.”
McCarthy also took issue with people claiming that six classified documents were discovered at Biden’s residence.
“It’s not 6 classified dox,” he said. “Awkwardly worded statement by Biden team (ie, spin as favorable to Biden as possible) was ‘6 items consisting of documents with classification markings.’ We don’t know what they mean by ‘item’ (box? envelope?) nor how many classified dox in each ‘item’.”