Visitor logs for President Joe Biden’s house in Wilmington, Delaware, since the start of his presidency do not exist, the White House said Monday.
The announcement comes after an unspecified number of classified documents were recovered from Biden’s personal home in recent weeks. Republicans have raised questions over who had access to the records while they were stored in Biden’s garage and study.
“Like every President in decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” the White House Counsel’s office told Fox News. “But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them.”
The U.S. Secret Service said Sunday that it does not track visitors to Biden’s personal residence, though agents do guard the home.
Over the weekend, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY) called on the White House to release visitor records of Biden’s Wilmington home since the start of Biden’s presidency, as well as other information regarding the classified documents, in the interests of national security.
“It is troubling that classified documents have been improperly stored at the home of President Biden for at least six years, raising questions about who may have reviewed or had access to classified information,” Comer wrote in a letter to White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain. “Additionally, President Biden’s personal attorneys, who do not possess security clearances, and White House staff continue to access and search the President’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware for classified documents.”
“Given the serious national security implications, the White House must provide the Wilmington residence’s visitor log,” the congressman added.
An unspecified number of classified documents were first found stored in the garage of Biden’s home on December 20 by Biden’s personal attorneys. The president’s legal team searched the house after attorneys found an envelope containing 10 classified documents in Biden’s personal office at the Penn Biden Center, a Washington, D.C., think tank affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, according to White House counsel Richard Sauber.
Biden’s attorneys found one more classified document, this one located in Biden’s home study, on January 11. The next day, Sauber found five more documents with classified markings at the house as he handed over the document found the day before to Justice Department officials, Sauber said.
It is unclear what information was contained in the documents or how many were found in Biden’s locked garage. The classified materials are reported to have dated back to Biden’s time as vice president, which ended in January 2017.
Former President Donald Trump, who is under special counsel investigation for classified documents stored at Mar-a-Lago, reacted to the White House’s admission about visitor logs in a post on Truth social, Trump’s social media platform.
“The White House just announced that there are no LOGS or information of any kind on visitors to the Wilmington house and flimsy, unlocked, and unsecured, but now very famous, garage. Maybe they are smarter than we think! This is one of seemingly many places where HIGHLY CLASSIFIED documents are stored (in a big pile on the damp floor),” Trump said. “Mar-a-Lago is a highly secured facility, with Security Cameras all over the place, and watched over by staff & our great Secret Service. I have INFO on everyone!”
Biden has said that his garage, which houses his 1967 Corvette Stingray, was locked.
This piece has been updated to include a response from former President Donald Trump.