Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.
Julia Ainsley is homeland security correspondent for NBC News and covers the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
WASHINGTON — The FBI searched the offices of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in mid-November after classified documents were discovered there, two senior law enforcement officials confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday.
The officials said President Joe Biden's lawyers cooperated with the search and no search warrants were used. NBC News does not know the exact date of the search or whether classified documents or anything else of importance were found. The FBI search was first reported Tuesday by CBS News.
Biden's lawyers had originally found some classified documents at the Penn Biden Center in an office used by the president on Nov. 2. Biden's lawyers said they immediately notified the Department of Justice and the National Archives about what was discovered.
Neither the White House nor Biden's personal lawyers had previously divulged information about the FBI's search in November. The FBI also searched Biden's residence in Wilmington, Delaware, earlier this month after the president's lawyers offered to provide access to his home.
As a result of that search, six additional items, including documents with classified markings, were found in Biden’s Delaware home, said Bob Bauer, the president’s personal attorney.
The documents at the Wilmington home appeared to be related to Biden’s time as vice president, Bauer said, as well as to his tenure in the Senate, and they were found after Biden’s counsel offered full access to the premises.
A pair of Republican-led congressional committees in the House are investigating Biden's handling of classified documents and Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to lead the federal government's probe.
