The federal probe examining President Joe Biden’s mishandling of several classified documents during his tenure as vice president has expanded into a wider investigation, according to reports.
Sources familiar with the situation told ABC News that Biden may have been careless with the removal of classified documents when he left as vice president in 2017. Others, however, felt that the incident was more likely a mistake than a criminal act.
Special counsel Robert Hur, whose office is interviewing the witnesses, previously vowed that he would conduct a “fair, impartial, and dispassionate” investigation based on facts. The investigation is still ongoing, and no conclusions have been reached.
According to said sources, Hur’s team is trying to uncover how the then-vice president was updated about highly sensitive issues by gathering records from the early Obama administration.
Hur has conducted his high-stakes probe of a sitting president discreetly since his appointment in January, mostly avoiding public attention, in contrast to special counsel Jack Smith and the commotion surrounding his investigations into former President Donald Trump.
Witnesses told the outlet that investigators have questioned them about the use of safes and cabinets, as well as email conversations that date back as far as 2010. Authorities reportedly searched for documents dating back to Biden’s time in the Senate.
This comes after bombshell reports from earlier this year revealed that several of those documents were discovered in his private office in November of last year.
White House lawyers said they immediately contacted the Justice Department when they discovered the second batch of documents inside the Wilmington garage shortly after the initial report.
“Lawyers discovered among personal and political papers a small number of additional Obama-Biden administration records with classified markings. All but one of these documents were found in storage space in the President’s Wilmington residence garage,” White House lawyers said in a statement at the time.
A source close to the situation said that less than a dozen secret documents were discovered in Biden’s office. The purpose of the documents and their relevance are currently unknown. Official records and classified records must be turned over by federal officeholders upon leaving government employment, as required by law.
