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20 January 2023•Update: 20 January 2023
NEW YORK
US President Joe Biden said Thursday that he ''has no regrets'' over how he and his team have dealt with the discovery and disclosure of classified documents at his former office dating to his time as vice president in the Obama administration.
Biden broke his silence in California when asked about the discovery of the classified documents and said they immediately turned over ''a handful of documents'' found ''in the wrong place'' to the Archives and the Justice Department.
''We're fully cooperating, looking forward to getting this resolved quickly,'' he said.
''I think you're going to find there is nothing there. I have no regrets. I'm following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. That's exactly what we're doing."
The first batch of documents was discovered on Nov. 2 at his former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. from the Obama-Biden administration, six days before the midterm elections.
It was followed by the discovery of additional classified documents on Dec. 20 in Biden’s garage and later at his home in Delaware.
The documents reportedly included US intelligence memos and briefing materials dated between 2013 and 2016 related to Ukraine, Iran and the UK.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland last week announced the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the issue of the classified documents found at addresses linked to Biden.
The White House has come under increasing pressure from both Congressional Republicans and the US media for not disclosing it before the elections.
Republicans have also drawn parallels between Biden and the controversy over former President Donald Trump holding onto classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort residence.
Democrats have countered that Trump held onto hundreds of documents, not the handful found so far found at Biden’s addresses, and Biden immediately turned over the documents to the government, while Trump refused to hand them over.
