The White House intends to work “in good faith” with Congress as they examine the discovery of classified documents at President Joe Biden’s home and former office, said a spokesperson for the White House legal team, but they also hit back at what they called Republicans’ “political stunts” over the issue. 

What You Need To Know

  • A spokespersonf or the White House legal team pledged that the Biden administration intends to work “in good faith” with Congress as they examine the discovery of classified documents at President Joe Biden’s home and former office

  • Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, declined to detail much more about the timeline of the documents’ discovery or the search process

  • Sams accused Republicans of "faking outrage" over the issue; House Oversight Committee chair Rep. James Comer called for a visitors log at Biden's Wilmington home, while the House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, launched an inquiry into Biden’s documents last week

  • Democrats have continued to highlight the differences between the Biden and Trump document cases, noting that Biden’s team promptly handed over the records while Trump’s team obscured them for months

Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, held a call with reporters on Tuesday, declining to detail much more about the timeline of the documents’ discovery or the search process, which is now being investigated by a special counsel. 

But Sams did respond to the increasing interest from Congress, especially Republicans. 

“They’re faking outrage,” he said, pointing to new House Oversight Committeee chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who on Sunday called for all information surrounding the document searches and for a visitors log at Biden’s Wilmington home, where records were discovered in the garage.

“My concern is that the special counsel was called for, but yet hours after that we still had the president’s personal attorneys … looking for things,” Comer said. “That would essentially be a crime scene, so to speak.” 

But the Kentucky lawmaker also said on CNN that the documents aren’t his “biggest concern,” Sams pointed out. 

And Comer has not indicated he’ll investigate former president Donald Trump for the same issue after sensitive documents were found in his Florida home last year.

Still, Sams said, the White House intends to “review and respond to oversight inquiries in good faith.”

“But we also expect members of Congress to show the same good faith,” he said. 

The White House counsel’s office confirmed on Monday that neither Biden nor the Secret Service keeps a log at the president’s Wilmington home. 

The White House on Saturday said it had found five additional pages of classified documents at Biden's home on Thursday, the same day a special counsel was appointed to review the matter.

Lawyer Richard Sauber said in a statement that a total of six pages of classified documents were found from Biden's time as vice president in the Obama administration during a search of Biden’s private library. The White House had said previously that only a page was found there.

The latest disclosure was in addition to the discovery of documents found in December in Biden’s garage and in November at his former offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington.

Sauber said that Biden’s personal lawyers, who did not have security clearances, stopped their search after finding the first page on Wednesday evening. Sauber found the remaining material Thursday, as he was facilitating their retrieval by the Justice Department. Sauber did not explain why the White House waited two days to provide an updated accounting. 

The White House is already facing scrutiny for waiting more than two months to acknowledge the discovery of the initial group of documents at the Biden office. They faced additional questions later in the week for not disclosing the December set of documents when the first set were revealed days before. 

The House Judiciary Committee, now led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has already launched an inquiry into Biden’s documents as of last week. 

Democrats have continued to highlight the differences between the Biden and Trump document cases, noting that Biden’s team promptly handed over the records while Trump’s team obscured them for months.