President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was surprised when informed government records were found by his attorneys at his former office space in Washington.
He was asked about the issue after the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee requested the U.S. intelligence conduct a "damage assessment" of potentially classified documents.
Speaking to reporters in Mexico City, Biden said his attorneys "did what they should have done" when they immediately called the National Archives about the discovery at the offices of the Penn Biden Center. He kept an office there after he left the vice presidency in 2017 until shortly before he launched his presidential campaign in 2019.
The White House confirmed the Department of Justice was reviewing "a small number of documents with classified markings" found at the office.
"I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there are any government records that were taken there to that office," Biden said in his first comments since news of the Nov. 2, 2022, document discovery emerged Monday.
He added, "I don't know what's in the documents" and his lawyers had suggested he not ask.
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