WASHINGTON — President Biden admitted Thursday that more classified documents were found inside his Delaware garage — near his prized classic Corvette — after the revelation Monday that 10 sensitive documents were found at Biden’s former think tank office in Washington.
The jaw-dropping disclosure comes as the Justice Department reviews whether Biden mishandled classified information — a potential crime — after he left office as vice president in 2017.
In an action that could have a substantial long-running impact on Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday afternoon appointed Robert Hur, a former Maryland US attorney, as special counsel to examine the matter.
“The special counsel will not be subjected to the day-to-day supervision of any official at the department,” Garland said, adding that “I will ensure that Mr. Hur receives all the resources he needs to conduct his work.”
Earlier Thursday, Biden admitted he stored the documents next to his car, but insisted he takes seriously his responsibility to safeguard the nation’s secrets.
“Classified materials next to your Corvette? What were you thinking?” Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Biden after he spoke about annual inflation edging lower to 6.5% in December.
“My Corvette is in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,” Biden replied, seeming to brush off the significance of the discovery.
“So it was in a locked garage?” Doocy persisted.
“Yes, as well as my Corvette,” Biden admitted.
“But as I said earlier this week, people know I take classified documents and classified material seriously,” the president insisted.
“I also said we’re cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department’s review. As part of that process, my lawyers reviewed other places where documents might — from my time as vice president — were stored and they finished the review last night. They discovered a small number of documents with classified markings in storage areas and file cabinets in my home and my personal library.”
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Biden added, “The Department of Justice was immediately notified and the lawyers arranged for the Department of Justice to take possession of the document [sic]. So you’re gonna see, we’re gonna see all this unfold. I’m confident.”
The appointment of a special counsel could prove politically disastrous for Biden as such inquiries often expand in focus. For example, the late Kenneth Starr started off investigating then-President Bill Clinton’s real estate deals and ultimately uncovered his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, resulting in Clinton’s impeachment for perjury and abuse of power.
First son Hunter Biden, who frequently involved his father in international business relationships during his vice presidency and in the time before he became president, appears to have listed the Wilmington home as his residence on a July 2018 background check form as part of a rental application.
A former Justice Department official who knows Hur told The Post that “it’s possible” the investigation will morph into a more comprehensive probe into the Bidens, but that it may not be likely.
“If I was a betting man, I would not bet that this will result in some sort of gigantic thing that drives him from office,” the former Justice Department official said. “I don’t think Garland put in Hur to really open a can of worms on Biden. I suspect it’s more to put a lid on the can of worms.”
The 80-year-old Biden has a reputation for showing off his 1967 Corvette Stingray and took it for a spin on an episode of CNBC’s “Jay Leno’s Garage” that aired back in October. Biden’s green convertible features a 350-horsepower V8 engine and a four-speed manual transmission.
Moments before Biden spoke, White House special counsel Richard Sauber had made the initial garage disclosure in a written statement.
“Following the discovery of government documents at the Penn Biden Center in November 2022, and coordinating closely with the Department of Justice, the President’s lawyers have searched the President’s Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, residences – the other locations where files from his Vice-Presidential office might have been shipped in the course of the 2017 transition. The lawyers completed that review last night,” Sauber said.
“During the review, the lawyers discovered among personal and political papers a small number of additional Obama-Biden Administration records with classified markings. All but one of these documents were found in storage space in the President’s Wilmington residence garage. One document consisting of one page was discovered among stored materials in an adjacent room. No documents were found in the Rehoboth Beach residence.”
Sauber added, “As was done in the case of the Penn-Biden Center, the Department of Justice was immediately notified, and the lawyers arranged for the Department of Justice to take possession of these documents.”
After Garland’s appointment of Hur as special counsel, Sauber added, “We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the President and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.”
CNN reported Wednesday that 10 documents — touching on Iran, Ukraine and the UK — that were recovered at the Penn Biden Center Nov. 2 had classified markings and were dated between 2013 and 2016. They were found mixed in with Biden family papers — including information about the funeral arrangements for the president’s son Beau, who died in 2015. Some of the documents were reportedly labeled “top secret,” the highest level of government classification.
Garland said the DOJ was notified of the initial document discovery Nov. 4 — four days before the midterm elections — and that the papers at Biden’s home were located Dec. 20. Garland also said that Chicago US attorney John Lausch, who the AG asked Nov. 14 conducted an initial review of the Biden documents, learned as late as Thursday from Biden’s lawyers that sensitive material was still being found.
“This morning, President Biden’s personal counsel called Mr. Lausch and stated that an additional document bearing classification markings was identified at the President’s personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware,” he said.
Under the Presidential Records Act of 1978, documents from each administration’s president and vice president are considered public and are transferred to the National Archives in preparation for deposit in a future presidential library. The Act specifically puts the onus on the outgoing administration to separate personal records from presidential and vice presidential records.
NBC News reported Thursday that multiple former aides to the then-vice president had been interviewed by federal law enforcement officials in connection with the probe.
In addition to the Presidential Records Act, federal law states that officials who permit the removal of classified information from its rightful place through “gross negligence” can be imprisoned for up to ten years.
Thursday’s revelation followed the dramatic Aug. 8 raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and residence in Palm Beach, Fla., in an effort to retrieve classified documents.
Biden at the time unleashed on his predecessor, telling “60 Minutes” on Sept. 18, that Trump had been “irresponsible” in holding on to the papers after leaving office in January 2021.
“I thought, ‘What data was in there that may compromise sources and methods?'” Biden told CBS News’ Scott Pelley. “By that I mean names of people who helped or th– et cetera. And it just– totally irresponsible.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) slammed Biden for hypocrisy Thursday.
“He held these in different locations right out in the open,” McCarthy said at a press conference. “He criticized President Trump. Did he utilize the Justice Department to raid President Trump? Do you think that was right? They knew this had happened to President Biden before the election, but they kept it a secret from the American public and he goes on ’60 Minutes’ and criticizes President Trump even knowing what he has done.”
On Nov. 18, Garland appointed prosecutor Jack Smith as a special counsel to oversee the investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents as well as the 45th president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Biden has routinely visited his Wilmington home during his nearly two years as president.
Given the frequency of his visits there, The Post has repeatedly pressed for details about who the president is meeting with at his home, but the Secret Service has insisted it keeps no records of his visitors there and the White House has refused to divulge that information.
