Aides to President Joe Biden have discovered at least one additional batch of classified documents in a location separate from the Washington, D.C., office he used after serving as vice president, NBC News reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed source.
Biden aides have been searching for additional classified materials that might be in other locations after a set of documents was found in November at a Washington think tank, according to NBC News.
The White House seemed to be struggling for answers about the latest revelations, acknowledging the discovery of the second set of classified documents.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre grew frustrated with a reporter pressing for answers.
"Ed, we don't need to have this," Jean-Pierre told CBS News' Ed O'Keefe, who she suggested was a media ally to the White House. "We work very well together. We don't need to have this kind of confrontation.
"You don't need to be contentious with me here."
Jean-Pierre also refused to answer questions from The Associated Press on when he was briefed on the doc discoveries, with O'Keefe having asked if there was any link to the Nov. 2 timing – days before the midterm elections.
"Special counsel," Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., tweeted in response to the latest news.
"We all know why it was kept secret — right before the midterms — that Joe Biden kept classified documents at his Chinese-funded 'think tank,'" Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., tweeted Tuesday.
Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, insisted on Twitter after the second batch news, "Attorney General Merrick Garland must appoint a special counsel."
Before the latest revelations, former President Donald Trump denounced the liberal media's attempt to spin narratives to defend Biden while attacking his political rival. Trump has recently come under scrutiny over the FBI discovery of documents, many of which appeared classified, at his Florida retreat, Mar-a-Lago.
"Biden's documents are HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL, many pertain to UKRAINE, where Hunter was 'raking in the dough,' and FUNDED BY CHINA, which gave $55 Million to Biden, through Penn, and probably had easy access," Trump posted Wednesday on Truth Social, turning the attention to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his wife Elaine Chao. "Was the Old Crow's boss, China loving Coco Chow, involved? Just asking?"
Trump also blasted RINO (Republican in name only) pundits like Karl Rove for the "giant scam" of attempting to suggest Biden's documents were less significant than those that led to the August 2022 raid of Trump's private residence.
"Karl Rove was, as usual, wrong when he stated that then V.P. Biden's HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL papers, which were in his office for many years, were in any way similar to the Secret Service guarded, & otherwise very secure, Mar-a-Lago papers," Trump wrote in another Truth Social post.
"Biden was not then President, had no power to declassify, & came under the very tough Federal Records Act. I come under the much more generous Presidential Records Act, was having productive discussions with Radical Left NARA, & did everything right. A giant scam."
Biden has sought to downplay the allegations over the found docs; he has been openly critical of Trump's holding such materials.
Biden said Tuesday he was "surprised" when informed government records were found by his attorneys at his former office space in Washington.
He was asked about the issue after the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee requested the U.S. intelligence conduct a "damage assessment" of potentially classified documents.
Speaking to reporters in Mexico City, Biden said his attorneys "did what they should have done" when they immediately called the National Archives about the discovery at the offices of the Penn Biden Center. He kept an office there after he left the vice presidency in 2017 until shortly before he launched his presidential campaign in 2019.
The White House confirmed the Department of Justice was reviewing "a small number of documents with classified markings" found at the office.
"I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there are any government records that were taken there to that office," Biden said in his first comments since news of the Nov. 2, 2022, document discovery emerged Monday.
He added, "I don't know what's in the documents" and his lawyers had suggested he not ask.
"Look how President Trump was treated when it came to so-called 'classified' documents at his home," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, tweeted Wednesday before news of the second batch.
"Now look at how President Biden is being treated for having classified documents at the Biden Center."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Wednesday night's "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" on Newsmax that the latest revelations have shown the Biden administration to be "not a very fair place" for the "administration of justice."
"There's a double standard when it comes to how to deal with conservatives and liberals under this administration," Graham told Van Susteren. "It needs to stop.
"The media is complicit; social media companies need to be regulated – you know, they're they're an extension of the Democratic Party in many ways
"So, no, America is not a very fair place now when it comes to administration of the law."
Information from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.