The White House announced that the US Department of Justice is reviewing classified documents, which were found in an office used by President Joe Biden at a research center.
Biden’s lawyer said the president’s legal team found nearly 10 documents in a locked safe at the Ben Biden Center in Washington in November.
He added that the documents relate to the period when Biden was vice president.
The documents were handed over to the National Archives Center.
Former President Donald Trump is under investigation for transferring classified documents to Florida after the end of his presidency.
The FBI is participating in the investigation into the documents found at the Ben Biden Center, and Attorney General Merrick Garland has been asked to review the papers, according to CBS News.
An informed source told CBS that the documents did not contain nuclear secrets, and were placed in a file alongside other non-secret papers.
Biden’s special advisor, Richard Soper, said in a statement to CBS on Monday that the documents were found during the evacuation of Biden’s office, ahead of the US midterm elections.
Biden maintained an office at the think tank, about a mile from the White House, from 2017 to 2020.
“Since I discovered (the documents), attorneys for the president have cooperated with the National Archives Center and the Department of Justice on procedures to ensure that records of the Biden and Obama administrations are properly preserved in the archives,” Sober said.
Donald Trump interacted on his “Truth Social” social media platform, saying: “When will the FBI raid Biden’s many homes, and perhaps the White House as well?”
Trump is facing an investigation over allegations that he refused a request to return about 300 confidential documents that he took with him to his residence in Florida, after leaving the White House. The National Archives Center informed the authorities about this.
The documents were found in Biden’s office shortly before the US Department of Justice announced the appointment of an independent lawyer to consider criminally charging Trump over the files found at his golf club.
The new chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Republican James Comer, said Monday that the handling of the Biden documents issue has raised questions about the Justice Department’s impartiality.
He added, speaking to reporters: “The thing that increases the concern is that there is a two-tier justice system in the Department of Justice, and how they deal with Republicans versus Democrats, and certainly how they treat the former president versus the current president.”
There was no immediate comment from the Ben Biden Center or the National Archives.
In an appearance on CBS last September, Biden responded to a question about documents found at Trump’s residence, saying, “How can anyone be so irresponsible?”