The breaking news that we're following,
classified government documents found
inside one of President Biden's
private offices.
The records dating from Biden's time
as vice president
during the Obama administration.
CNN senior justice correspondent
Evan Perez has been working
the story for us.
He's got the new information.
Update our viewers on exactly
what is going on.
Well, Wolf,
this is reporting from our colleague
Jamie Gangel and our team.
We're told that the former president's
legal team discovered these documents.
They say it's fewer
than a dozen documents,
classified documents
that were discovered
in a office of the former,
that the president had
when he was setting up an office
with the University of Pennsylvania,
the Penn Biden Center
here in Washington, D.C.
They were cleaning out this office,
trying to close it out
and that's when they discovered
these documents, again,
according to the White House.
There are fewer than a dozen documents.
They've now turned those documents over
to the National Archives,
which has in turn asked
the Justice Department to investigate it.
Now, we're told that the U.S.
attorney in Chicago, John Lewis,
who is an appointee of former President
Donald Trump,
is now handling
a review of these documents
to determine what next to do.
Of course,
the FBI is also involved
in reviewing this.
And, Wolf, it's important
for us to understand
also that the
according to the White House,
they say that
this was obviously something
that they turned over
to the National Archives.
I'll read you
just a part of what they say.
According to said
their statement,
they say the White House is cooperating
with the National Archives.
And the Justice Department
regarding the discovery
of what appear to be Obama-Biden
administration records,
including a small number of documents
with classified markings
these are documents
from the previous
Obama-Biden administration
that it appears
then Vice President Biden took with him
when he was setting up this think tank
with the University of Pennsylvania.
Well, do we know that Biden personally
took these classified documents
to that private office?
We do not know.
We do not know who packed these
these documents up.
And you would have to assume
that this is something
that the Justice Department
is going to be reviewing
as part of this
this ongoing investigation
right now that they're doing,
because we don't know
exactly how they got to this location.
Of course,
one of the things
they're going to be investigating,
Wolf, is the circumstance
in which these documents
were being kept
at the Penn Biden Center
here in Washington.
Stand by, Evan. Jamie Gangel is here.
Jamie, you've been doing
a lot of reporting.
You got the initial
report for us here on CNN.
Tell us some more.
Well,
I think just to give some context,
I mean, Evan is really laid out
what happened.
But my sources tell me that
what they believe happened
was that documents
that people did not realize were there.
But this will come out
in the investigation went to this office
along with a lot of personal documents.
And when the lawyers came to clean out
the offices,
these were supposedly being kept
in a locked closet
that they found
a lot of personal documents there.
A lot of other research documents.
And then they found
a small number of documents
that should have been turned over
to the archives
under the present presidential records.
Act.
But there was a subset
and those were the classified documents.
I'm told
there were fewer than a dozen documents
but they were classified.
They were of a certain level.
Were they top secret?
They they are under a category
called Se C
I that's higher than and that.
But that
we don't know the significance.
We don't know the content.
They don't know what they pertain to.
But but absolutely,
that's a
sensitive compartmented information,
which is one of the highest
classified levels of classification
that Biden's lawyers
as soon as they saw the documents.
They immediately
called the National Archives and said,
we found these.
We want to get them to you.
And part of the process here, Wolf.
And Jamie knows this well
from our coverage of the
of the Trump Mar a Lago documents.
And that drama is a damage assessment
that is done
by the FBI to determine whether any
sensitive information,
any classified information,
especially at the CIA levels.
And these sources and methods,
anything like that
could have been damaged
or exposed as a result
of having these documents in a location
that is
from what we can
tell, would not have been a place
that you housed classified documents.
And that's part of what has been
the problem for
former President Donald Trump. Right.
The idea that you have these documents,
there are requirements
of how you handle them,
where you put them
in lock
compartments, certainly
to make sure that sources
and methods are not exposed.
That is what the U.S.
attorney in Chicago is now doing
a review of
to make sure that there's no damage
or what damage
could have been done as a result.
There's no question
that this is in a political context
following the Trump documents.
But I spoke to a source
who's very familiar with the documents.
What happened?
This is not a partizan source.
This is someone who is a professional.
And what the person said to me
is that there were two key differences
in this case.
One, cooperation,
the Biden lawyers immediately,
as soon as they found them called them
and turn them over.
And the other thing they pointed out was
these were a
relatively small number of documents
in comparison
to the hundreds of documents
that were found at Mar a Lago.
But out of an abundance of caution,
because of the Trump documents
that the archives felt
they had to refer this to,
just to be precise,
whoever brought
those classified documents
to this private Biden location
committed potentially a crime.
So one of the things that has happened,
this is not the first time
something like this has happened
to Evan knows about this.
You go back to past presidents
to past vice presidents, top officials.
The the packing is not always perfect.
And and I'm not saying
that there
isn't some responsibility here
or wrongdoing,
but a source of mine
who's very familiar
with the National Archives
told me that there are dozens
of these incidents over the years.
A widow is going through
a closet and finds documents
that shouldn't that shouldn't be there.
There is a difference
in the National Archives experience
between someone
making an honest mistake or bad packing
and someone with holding on purpose
knowing what they're taking.
But that said. Right.
I mean,
I think the context that you're uncertain
you're going to hear in the coming hours,
certainly from former
President Trump's team is that
you can see how he ended up
where he ended up. Right.
That,
you know, how can you prosecute
which is something obviously
that is being considered
by the Justice Department right now.
There's a
there's actually a special counsel
looking into
whether to bring criminal charges
in this case.
How can you
consider bringing charges
against Donald Trump
when something like
this could have happened to Joe Biden?
I think
we have sound of current President Biden
addressing the handling
of classified documents
and the care
in which he believes
they should be handled.
And we should listen to that.
I think we have this.
When you saw the photograph
of the top secret documents
laid out on the floor at Mar a Lago,
What did you think to yourself,
looking at that image,
how that could possibly happen,
how anyone could be that irresponsible?
And I thought what data was in there
that may compromise sources and methods.
By that,
I mean names of people who helped or etc.
and just totally irresponsible.
Totally irresponsible.
And I just want to be precise.
That was released on CBS 60 Minutes
on September 18th.
20, 20 to about a month or so before
maybe two
months before they
found similar documents
at the Biden private office.
Right. Exactly.
The president obviously
not was not according to the statement
that we received from the White House,
was not at that point aware
of the discovery of these items.
But what it will call into question is,
you know,
just as just as the president made
this mistake or someone made this mistake
and transported these documents
to the Penn
Biden Center,
just as easily
someone could have done this
in the case
of former President Donald Trump.
And the question
to the Justice Department is, you know,
are you treating them differently?
Obviously,
the Trump investigation
we know, has taken a much different turn.
Right.
You have months and months between
where the archives
was asking for these documents
to be returned.
We know that the former president
basically thought
that these documents belong to him.
He considered them personal
because that he could declassify
and he could justify thinking about it
right
We've heard of various
explanations
for why
this entire process happened
the way it did.
So we'll see whether
the Justice Department views
this case
to to be something that requires
further investigation,
whether this will become
a full criminal investigation
or whether they will resolve it
the way they have,
which is by having a review done
by the Chicago U.S. attorney John Laws.