The White House defended its failure to disclose an FBI search of President Joe Biden’s think tank in the weeks after the president’s attorneys found classified documents at the site.
Biden’s communications director said the president was cooperating with federal authorities but that his focus remains on his policy agenda.
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“While he absolutely takes this seriously and continues to cooperate, he’s also continuing to focus on the things that matter in people’s lives,” Kate Bedingfield said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, noting how the scandal “hasn’t impacted his approval ratings.”
“We have released multiple statements from the White House, and President Biden’s personal attorney has released multiple statements over the last month walking through the process and agreeing to be fully, fully cooperative with the Justice Department,” Bedingfield said. “We have been clear from the outset that the president will cooperate with every request the Justice Department has, and we put out multiple statements describing that process.”
The FBI’s search of the Penn Biden Center in mid-November was conducted with the cooperation of Biden’s aides and did not require a warrant, two sources told CBS News. The outlet said it was not immediately known whether the agency found additional documents.
Neither Biden’s attorneys nor the Justice Department had publicly disclosed the FBI’s search of the president’s Washington think tank.
Yet when the FBI searched Biden’s Delaware home on Jan. 20, Biden’s personal attorney Bob Bauer disclosed the search the following day.
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Aides had promised “exhaustive” transparency in the White House’s handling of the case, which became public in early January when Biden’s attorneys confirmed a news report that about 10 classified documents dating to the Obama administration had been found at the Penn Biden Center for Global Engagement.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
