The White House misled reporters on Friday, telling them that President Joe Biden was visiting his beach home for the weekend, when in fact the Department of Justice was doing another sweep of his Wilmington, Delaware home.
When asked about the sudden change in travel plans for Biden this weekend, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre brushed the question off and simply said that the president was going to his Rehoboth beach house instead, despite it being the middle of winter.
However, in reality, Biden wasn’t able to go to his Wilmington residence because the Department of Justice was doing another search of it, where they found an additional batch of classified documents.
“The President going to his home in Rehoboth Beach today — does that have anything to do with classified documents being found at Wilmington and none being found at Rehoboth?” the reporter asked Jean-Pierre.
In response, she said “and as it relates specifically to the investigation, I would refer you to the Department of Justice, so I’m not going to — not going to comment on that piece at all from here. I’m just going to continue to be prudent and consistent and respect the Department of Justice process… as it relates to his travel, as you know, he often travels to Delaware on the weekends. I just don’t have anything else to share.”
Previously, the White House had told reporters that the search by Biden’s DOJ was complete and that all documents had been found.
According to NBC News, White House lawyers reportedly requested the FBI search for Biden’s home, which lasted 13 hours, claiming it was “consensual.”
FBI agents and DOJ personnel reportedly arrived at Biden’s Wilmington home on Friday morning around 9:45 and didn’t leave until 10:30 that evening, which U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch coordinated.
It is unclear which party initiated the search, however, the White House is sticking to its comments that the president is “fully cooperating.”