Biden fully cooperating after discovery of secret documents: Ro Khanna

Washington: US President Joe Biden is fully cooperating and has done everything that the procedures required after classified documents were found at his private office in Washington DC and his Delaware homes, Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna said on Sunday.

Five additional pages of classified material have been found at Biden's family home in Delaware, the White House said on Saturday, bringing the total number of secret documents uncovered to about two dozen files.

“No one is going to defend taking documents that are classified. But the point is that the president is fully cooperating, and he did everything that the procedures required, from what we can tell. As soon as those documents were found, he reported them to law enforcement,” Congressman Khanna told CNN.

“I think, if (former) President (Donald) Trump had done the same thing, this would be a non-issue,” he said when told that both Trump and Biden took documents out of the White House that they shouldn't have taken them.

The initial cache of documents – 10 classified files from Biden’s time as vice president found at his former private office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement – was found on November 2 but not revealed to the public until Monday.

Biden used the office from 2017 to 2019 when he was an honorary professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

On Thursday it emerged that a second batch of documents had been found on December 20 by Biden aides in a garage and adjacent room at his private home in Wilmington, Delaware.

The White House is facing increasing criticism for its lack of transparency with the public over the documents.

Appearing on Fox News, Republican Congressman John Garamendi said the documents and the whole issue are before the special counsel, and the investigations will go forward with regard to the classified documents that were found.

“It's an embarrassment, no doubt about it. Is there more to it? I doubt it, but we'll find out from the special counsel as he goes about his business,” he said in response to a question.

Biden, who has previously described his predecessor Donald Trump's alleged mishandling of classified material as "totally irresponsible", earlier said he was “surprised” to learn that some classified documents were found at his private office, asserting that he is unaware of what is in those papers and is "cooperating fully" with their review.

On MSNBC, Senator Ron Johnson said Congress must have access to all the information.

“I never held public hearings. We just did our investigation, then issued a report. If there's evidence of wrongdoing, then we should refer that to the Justice Department, then the investigation should take place,” he said.

“What happens nowadays is that when the investigation begins, Congress never gets access to the information, and as a result, the American public never understands the truth of these situations. And so, again, we just do these investigations in the political realm with wrongdoing completely backwards,” Senator Johnson said.

Republicans have asked the White House to release visitor logs of Biden's homes, but the White House has refused to say if such information will be made public.

The White House has said the files were "inadvertently misplaced" and that it is cooperating fully.

The news about classified records turning up at Biden’s private office is sure to provide new fodder to Trump, who has already announced his 2024 presidential bid.

In August 2021, scores of classified documents were found at ex-president Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago in Florida during a raid by the FBI.

The documents were found more than a year after Trump departed the White House. He did not return them despite numerous requests by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Trump eventually gave 15 boxes of materials back to NARA in January last year. He is now under investigation for potentially mishandling classified documents.