President Joe Biden on Jan. 10 said he was “surprised to learn” documents with classified markings were discovered inside an office where he once worked and that he doesn’t know what the documents contain.
It was the first time he addressed the finding that was revealed by his attorney on Jan. 9.
Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, said in a statement that the documents were located in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center and found on Nov. 2, 2022.
White House lawyers notified the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on that day, and the agency took possession of the materials the following morning, according to Sauber.
Delivering public statements after the North American Leaders’ Summit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico City, Biden said, “People know I take classified documents classified information seriously.”
“When my lawyers were clearing out my office at the University of Pennsylvania, they set up an office for me, a secure office, in the Capitol, the four years after being vice president, I was a professor at Penn,” Biden explained.
“They found some documents in a box, you know, in a locked cabinet, or at least a closet. And as soon as they did, they realized there were several classified documents in that box and they did what they should have done.
“They immediately called the Archives … turned them over to the Archives and I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office,” Biden added.
“And we’re cooperating fully, cooperating fully with the review.”
