Classified documents found at Joe Biden’s Vice Presidential centre

White House officials notified the National Archives when the classified documents were found at Joe Biden’s Vice Presidential centre.

Classified documents have been found at Joe Biden’s think tank in Washington. Picture: Getty Images.

Classified documents were found late last year at President Biden’s think tank in Washington, according to a statement from the president’s attorney.

The documents, earlier reported by CBS News, were discovered in November by Mr. Biden’s personal lawyers as they packed files at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, according to a statement by the president’s attorney Richard Sauber.

White House officials notified the National Archives when the documents were found on Nov. 2 and the National Archives took possession of the documents the following day, according to the statement.

Mr. Sauber described the papers as a “small number of documents with classified markings” and said Mr. Biden’s attorneys “have cooperated with the Archives and the Justice Department in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.” A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment. Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was searched in August by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who confiscated about 20 boxes of documents, some of them marked classified. The search came after an extended back-and-forth between federal officials seeking the papers and the former president’s representatives and has been part of a protracted legal battle.

Mr. Trump has decried the search and has said he used his authority to declassify the material before he left office.

“When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?” Mr. Trump asked on his social-media platform in reaction to the news.

The House Judiciary Committee Republican staff also responded swiftly to the story, posting a series of alarm emojis on Twitter.

Mr. Biden didn’t respond to questions about the documents shouted at him Monday as he left a meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The news broke as Mr. Biden was traveling in Mexico for the North American Leaders’ Summit. Attorney General Merrick Garland is accompanying him on that trip.

The Penn Biden Center is a “think tank founded on the principle that a democratic, open, secure, tolerant, and interconnected world benefits all Americans,” according to its website.

Mr. Biden periodically worked from the center from mid-2017 until he launched his 2020 presidential campaign, according to Mr. Sauber’s statement.

The Wall St Journal