No classified documents at Biden's home, says FBI

President Joe Biden’s personal attorney said FBI agents had found no documents with classified markings during a planned” search of Mr Biden’s Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, holiday home.

- ANDREW FEINBERG

The search by the FBI was part of continuing efforts by the Department of Justice to determine if any documents with classification markings have been stored at Mr Biden's personal residences. Bob Bauer, the former White House counsel who serves as Mr Biden's personal attorney, said the Department of Justice's "planned search" of the beach house took place from 8.30am to 12pm.

Earlier in the day, he said the search was being conducted "with the president's full support and cooperation". "Under DoJ's standard procedures, in the interests of operational security and integrity, it sought to do this work without advance public notice, and we agreed to cooperate," Mr Bauer said. "The search ... is a further step in a thorough and timely DOJ process we will continue to fully support and facilitate".

In a statement released following the search, Mr Bauer said the justice department took "some materials and handwritten notes that appear[ed] to relate" to Mr Biden's service as vice president, for "further review". He added that the search of the Rehoboth Beach property, which Mr Biden bought following his departure from government service, was "conducted in coordination and cooperation with the President's attorneys". The department's taking of handwritten notes was "consistent" with the process in place during last month's search of Mr Biden's primary residence, he added.

When asked to comment, a spokesperson for the White House Counsel's Office referred The Independent to Mr Bauer's statement and declined to say anything further. The latest search of one of the 46th president's two Delaware residences comes less than two weeks after FBI special agents conducted a daylong search of the Wilmington home that has been Mr Biden's primary residence for many years.