Biden's counsel reports discovery of five more classified documents at his house

In a rapidly unfolding case, US President Joe Biden's counsel says he has found some additional classified documents at his house in Delaware.

Speaking on Saturday, Biden's special counsel, Richard Sauber, said the discovery was made after he traveled to the president's home in Wilmington, Delaware on Thursday, to facilitate the handover to the Justice Department of a document with classified markings that was found there earlier. It was then that he found five additional pages with classified markings on them.

"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," he said said in a statement.

Biden's legal team acknowledged this week that it had found classified documents relating to his time as vice president in the Obama administration at his Delaware home, including some in his garage.

Aides previously found another batch of classified documents at his residence and at a Washington think tank he was associated with. US Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel on Thursday to probe the matter.

"How many more classified documents will they find at Joe Biden's house?" the Republican House Judiciary Committee said in a Twitter post on Saturday.

Sauber said Biden's lawyers have acted "immediately and voluntarily" to hand all the documents found to the proper authorities.

Biden is spending the weekend in Wilmington with his wife, Jill Biden, who underwent surgery on Wednesday to remove skin lesions from her face and chest.

Biden was asked by a reporter on Thursday about the wisdom of storing important material next to his Corvette at his garage. The self-declared 'car guy' president said both were in a locked garage.

"It's not like they’re sitting out in the street," he said, adding, "People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously."

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives launched an investigation on Friday into the Justice Department's handling of improperly stored classified documents possessed by Biden, and questioned whether his son, Hunter, had access to any. 

US House Republicans probe Biden classified documents, ask if Hunter had access

Republicans in the US House of Representatives launched an investigation on Friday into the Justice Department

In a letter to Garland, top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee demanded all relevant documents and communications between the Justice Department, the FBI, the White House and Biden's attorneys.

On Saturday, James Comer, Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, described the matter as alarming, saying the National Archives, Justice Department and the White House had not been transparent. 

Republicans have sought to compare the investigation to the ongoing probe into how former president, Donald Trump, handled classified documents after his presidency.

The White House says the two cases are different, because Biden's team has cooperated with authorities in their probe and has turned over those documents. Trump had resisted doing so until an FBI search in August at his Florida resort.

Bob Bauer, Biden's personal lawyer, said in a statement that Biden had directed his attorneys to be "forthcoming and fully cooperative with the National Archives and Records Administration and the Justice Department regarding the documents.

"In addition, the president’s personal attorneys have attempted to balance the importance of public transparency where appropriate with the established norms and limitations necessary to protect the investigation’s integrity. These considerations require avoiding the public release of details relevant to the investigation while it is ongoing," he said.

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