The United States Department of Justice is investigating “roughly 10” classified documents recovered from a private office used by President Joe Biden at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, according to CNN and CBS who broke the story. 

Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden, confirmed the development, stating that “The White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified markings.”

“The documents were discovered when the President’s personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. The President periodically used this space from mid-2017 until the start of the 2020 campaign. On the day of this discovery, November 2, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office notified the National Archives. The Archives took possession of the materials the following morning,” the statement concluded.

Sauber also told NBC that “The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives. Since that discovery, the President’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.”