WATCH LIVE: White House holds press briefing after FBI agents search Biden beach house
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre gives daily press briefing.
FBI agents searched President Biden's vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Wednesday for three-and-a-half hours but did not find additional classified documents, the president's attorney Bob Bauer said.
"Today, with the President’s full support and cooperation, the DOJ is conducting a planned search of his home in Rehoboth, Delaware. Under DOJ’s standard procedures, in the interests of operational security and integrity, it sought to do this work without advance public notice, and we agreed to cooperate," Bauer said in a statement.
"The search today is a further step in a thorough and timely DOJ process we will continue to fully support and facilitate. We will have further information at the conclusion of today’s search," he added.
The search concluded around noon, Bauer said. There was no warrant.
FBI SEARCHED PENN BIDEN CENTER IN MID-NOVEMBER, SOON AFTER CLASSIFIED DOCS DISCOVERED, SOURCES SAY
President Biden's Delaware vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, is seen in July 2022. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Comins)
President Biden walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on his way to his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home, on Aug. 7, 2022. ( AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The search was carried out on Special Counsel Robert Hur's first day on the job at the Justice Department. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur as special counsel to investigate the Biden documents on Jan. 12. Hur has been briefed on the investigation over the past few weeks but today is his first actual day in the office at the DOJ in his capacity as special counsel.
Sources tell Fox News Digital Hur will be briefed on the Rehoboth Beach search.
The FBI and Special Counsel Hur did not comment.
Justice Department prosecutors were reportedly weighing a search of Biden's Rehoboth Beach home last month after several sets of classified documents were found at his residence in Wilmington, Delaware.
FBI agents have searched the Wilmington home, as well as Biden's old offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., where a handful of other documents with classified markings were discovered. The Biden team has consented to each search and is working with the Justice Department to find and turn over all classified documents in Biden's possession dating to his time as vice president, though some date to when he was a senator.
So far, between 25 and 30 documents with classified markings have been recovered from Biden's possession and turned over to the National Archives and the Justice Department.
BIDEN DOCS: WHITE HOUSE REQUESTED FBI SEARCH THAT UNCOVERED LATEST BATCH OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS
U.S. attorney Robert Hur arrives at U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Nov. 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark, File)
Biden, like his predecessor Donald Trump, is under special counsel investigation for his retention of classified records.
The White House has repeatedly declined to comment on the contents of the classified records, as well as the levels of the classification, saying instead that the records "have been turned over to proper authorities and will be part of the ongoing investigation." Lawmakers have pressed for more transparency on the content of those documents, but to no avail, and have accused the Biden administration of attempting to "stonewall" their efforts.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had assured reporters in mid-January that the search for new documents was over. Then new documents were found at Biden's Wilmington home on Jan. 14 and again on Jan. 20, and now Biden's Rehoboth Beach home was searched as well.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
House Republicans are gearing up to launch an investigation into Biden's handling of classified materials, with Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., telling Fox News that "nothing that Joe Biden's done with respect to mishandling these classified documents is normal."
Fox News' Anders Hagstrom, Ronn Blitzer, Brooke Singman and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
