A new report claims that the FBI conducted at least two searches at the University of Delaware as part of a broader investigation into Joe Biden’s illegal handling of classified documents after his time as vice president.
The New York Post reports that the searches, which took place in “recent weeks,” were conducted in cooperation with Biden’s lawyers. On two different days, federal agents searched two different locations on the university campus and seized materials that are currently being inspected by the bureau, although the materials in question do not appear to be classified.
The documents in question in the University of Delaware searches consisted of archived documents from Biden’s time as a U.S. Senator from the state of Delaware, as well as documents that Biden himself sent to the university in recent years. As Biden is an alumnus of the university, the campus currently owns a massive collection in its library of documents from Biden’s 36-year Senate tenure.
In 2012, while Biden was still vice president, he donated 1,875 boxes of documents to the university, using two trucks and 33 pallets to carry out the delivery. Biden also donated 415 gigabytes of electronic records.
The search was carried out following the discovery of illegally-kept classified documents at Biden’s think tank at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as his residence in Wilmington, Delaware; the documents, which were from his time as vice president, marked a major breach in security as the vice president has no authority to take classified material.
“The next step in this scandal is going to be, OK, if Biden’s Senate documents include classified documents outside of classified settings — which is illegal — how many more classified documents are illegally in his Senate papers?” said Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) back in January. “The University of Delaware has said, nope, they’re not releasing the documents to anybody until two years after Biden retires from public life.”
“I am right now calling for the Department of Justice, for the FBI to examine all 1,850 boxes of those Senate records to see how many additional classified documents are in those records,” Cruz added. “The answer should be none. But given Biden’s pattern, we should have zero confidence that there are not multiple classified documents within those 1,850 boxes of Senate records.”