(Daily Mail) President Joe Biden‘s personal attorney revealed that yet another batch of documents with classified markings were found in the Democrat‘s Wilmington, Delaware home on Saturday.
It reportedly brings the total to some 25 to 30 pages found, as questions mount over why Biden had them and why the White House took months to disclose their existence.
Meanwhile the president’s critics have also lashed out at him for openly mocking his predecessor Donald Trump‘s ongoing debacle with his own classified documents – which resulted in an FBI raid on his Florida mansion in August.
Biden called Trump’s mishandling of files, hundreds of which were recovered from Mar-a-Lago in the raid, ‘irresponsible’ during a September interview with 60 Minutes.
More recently, however, he’s been focused on downplaying his own growing scandal.
It comes as a new ABC News/Ipsos poll shows 64 percent of Americans believe Biden’s handling of classified documents was ‘inappropriate.’
The president has insisted that he and his team are being transparent and cooperative with investigators. He’s also brushed off reporters’ questions on the matter and outright ignored them at times.
Saturday’s discovery was made just four days after Biden insisted he had ‘no regrets’ in his handling of classified files.
Below, DailyMail.com has compiled a comprehensive timeline of what happened and when – and what the White House had to say about it.
November 2: Classified documents found
The president’s personal lawyers found a small number of classified documents, reportedly 10, in a Washington, DC think tank where Biden previously held a private office.
Those documents dated to Biden’s time as vice president and were among his private possessions in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.
The National Archives were contacted and took possession of the documents the next day. On November 4, the Archives alerted the Justice Department that some of those documents had classified markings.
November 9: FBI opens investigation into whether anything violated federal law
President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents has come under intense scrutiny amid a parade of continuous reports about more files being found
Just a day after the November 8 midterm elections, the Justice Department quietly opened an investigation ‘to understand whether classified information had been mishandled in violation of federal law.’
Attorney General Merrick Garland, who revealed that probe two months later on January 12, said it was opened in line with ‘standard protocols’ by the FBI.
November 14: Garland taps Trump appointee to examine files
The following Monday, Garland chose John Lausch – then U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois – to look into how the documents ended up at the Penn Biden Center.
Lausch, who has received bipartisan praise, was appointed by Trump in 2017.
December 20: Biden’s lawyer tells US attorney about documents in Biden’s garage
In late December, the president’s attorney alerted Lausch to more classified documents that were found in Biden’s private Delaware residence in the upscale Wilmington neighborhood of Greenville.
They were found in a room adjacent his garage, according to a statement from the White House Counsel’s Office.
At this point in the timeline, the documents’ existence had still not been made public.
This image shows stacks of paper in Biden’s garage as he backs his corvette into his garage. Biden critics have suggested the paper could be the classified documents, though the claim has not been verified in any way
January 9: White House tells the public about Penn Biden Center records
The White House Counsel’s Office finally did inform the public of the classified files found at the Penn Biden Center on January 9, after CBS News first broke the story.
Questions immediately arose from Biden critics over whether there were ‘political’ motives to keeping the documents a secret less than a week before the midterm elections.
January 10: Biden says he was ‘surprised’ about Penn Biden Center records
The president made his first public comments on the matter the next day, after previously ignoring reporters’ shouted questions while he was in Mexico for the ‘Three Amigos’ summit with his counterparts from Mexico City and Ottawa.
He finally broke his silence during a press conference held by all three leaders, telling reporters that he was taking the matter ‘seriously.’
‘We are cooperating fully with the review, which I hope will be finished soon,’ Biden said at the time.
He also claimed, ‘I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office, but I don’t know what’s in the documents.’
January 11: One more document found in Wilmington
Biden’s attorney found an additional document in his Wilmington, Delaware home on Wednesday, January 11, according to NBC News.
The DOJ and Attorney General Merrick Garland were alerted to it the next day, when Garland confirmed its existence in his own press conference.
January 12: DOJ appoints special counsel
Garland held a press conference on January 12 announcing he was appointing former US attorney Robert Hur as special counsel to oversee Biden’s handling of classified documents.
It came after mounting pressure to make such a move; Garland appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith to oversee Trump’s own classified documents debacle nearly two months earlier.
January 12: Biden says he takes classified materials ‘seriously’
That same day, Biden told the press once again that he takes classified matters ‘seriously.’
But Republicans bashed his words as empty platitudes, citing the continuous disclosures of new discoveries as proof the president was careless with classified records.
‘As I said earlier this week, people know I take classified documents and classified materials seriously,’ Biden said.
He made the comments at the tail end of an address about the economy.
Biden added, ‘I also said we’re cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department’s review.’
January 14: Five more pages found in Wilmington
The same day Garland appointed the special counsel, Justice Department investigators who were on site to collect the additional page were made aware of five more papers with classified markings at Biden’s home.
‘While I was transferring it to the DOJ officials who accompanied me, five additional pages with classification markings were discovered among the material with it, for a total of six pages. The DOJ officials with me immediately took possession of them,’ said Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president.
The office building housing the Penn-Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C where President Joe Biden’s personal lawyers handed over documents, which date from Biden’s time as the vice president to the Justice Department.
Pictures of the entrance to President Joe Biden’s lake front home in Wilmington, DE
