Second batch of classified Biden documents discovered

• Secret documents discovered by aides to US Vice President at second location.
• The first cache was discovered at his post vice presidential private office.
• US Dept of Justice is investigating how the secret documents ended up with Biden’s staff.

A new set of secret federal documents have been discovered by the aides to US Vice President Joe Biden at a second location, adding to the White House’s mounting political embarrassment.

The first cache was discovered at Mr. Biden’s post-vice-presidential private office in Washington, D.C.

The US Department of Justice is investigating the situation.

Donald Trump, a former president, is under criminal investigation for allegedly handling secret documents improperly.

On Wednesday, it remained unclear when or where Biden’s staff discovered the extra batch of documents.

Only this week has the first batch of roughly 10 documents been made public after it was found in November at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank close to the White House.

These documents apparently contain US intelligence notes and briefing materials about the UK, Iran, and Ukraine.

Although it’s not obvious why they ended up in the private office he started using after that, they are related to his time serving as vice president under President Barack Obama.

After an administration leaves office, all White House records, including those that are secret, must be given to the US National Archives.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary for Biden, declined to respond to enquiries regarding the initial trove of documents during her daily news briefing on Wednesday.

“This is under review by the Department of Justice,” she said. “I’m not going to go beyond what the president shared yesterday.”

She was pressed on why it took two months for the news to be made public and refused to say when Mr. Biden had been briefed on it. The discovery happened just days before the midterm congressional elections.

Mr. Biden said on Tuesday he was “surprised” when he found out and he was “co-operating” with the justice department’s review.

The controversy comes as the Democratic president faces scrutiny from a new Republican majority in the US House of Representatives.

“Now that Democrats no longer have one-party rule in Washington, oversight and accountability are coming,” James Comer, the new chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said on Wednesday.

The committee is looking into the president and his family, and part of that investigation will involve asking the White House to provide records and correspondence pertaining to the classified files.

According to the White House, Mr. Biden’s attorneys notified the archives as soon as they found the secret documents at the think tank, and the agency picked them up the following morning.

When Mr. Biden’s predecessor’s Florida residence was inspected by FBI investigators in August of last year, they found over 10,000 documents that Mr. Trump had not yet given to the National Archives.

Before the FBI arrived at Mar-a-Lago, the justice department had issued a demand for the return of the confidential documents.

Federal authorities seized more than 300 documents with classified markings from the Palm Beach golf club, including 18 with the top secret designation.

Legal experts have disputed Mr. Trump’s assertion that he had the authority to declassify them despite the fact that he has not provided any explanation for why they are there.

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