Joe Biden ‘did not keep a home visitor log’

The White House has said it did not keep visitor logs for Joe Biden’s personal home, as the row over his retention of classified documents shows no sign of ending.

US President Joe Biden. Picture: AFP

The White House has said it did not keep visitor logs for Joe Biden’s personal home, as the row over his retention of classified documents shows no sign of ending.

The President’s team tried to turn the focus back on to his predecessor, Donald Trump, who is under investigation for hoarding sensitive papers, insisting that no president had released lists of visitors to a private residence.

Mr Trump joined the fray by calling the garage at Mr Biden’s family home in Wilmington, Delaware, where five documents were found, “flimsy, unlocked and unsecured”, contrasting it with his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, where 103 classified ­documents were found by the FBI last August.

Three reports last week about discoveries of documents in Mr Biden’s possession have left Democrats dismayed, and have threatened his approval ratings as he ­appears to be preparing to ­announce a run for re-election.

“Like every president across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” the White House counsel’s office said after James Comer, Republican chair of the house committee on oversight and accountability, called in a letter to Ron Klain, Mr Biden’s chief of staff, for a list of everyone who visited the Bidens’ home over the past two years.

“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 office said. In June 2017, Mr Trump ended the practice brought in by Barack Obama of releasing the names of visitors.

The Secret Service said that, although it was assigned to Mr Biden’s home, it did not record ­visitors.

Documents from Mr Biden’s time as vice-president have been found at an office in Washington and in two places in his home in Wilmington. Republicans are furious that they were first found shortly before the midterm elections but disclosed only last week, in a report by CBS News.

The Department of Justice was informed on November 4, four days before the midterms and two weeks before Attorney-General Merrick Garland announced a special counsel to investigate material found in Mr Trump’s home.

Democrats have said that Mr Trump’s refusal to co-operate with the DOJ stands in contrast with Mr Biden voluntarily turning over documents, but Republicans are angry that the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, and the White House counsel’s office is overseeing the Biden search.

The Times