Biden Says He Has ‘No Regrets’ About His Handling of Documents

 Biden Says He Has ‘No Regrets’ About His Handling of Documents

The president said he followed the advice of his lawyers in disclosing the sensitive documents in his possession and that ‘there’s no there there.’

President Joe Biden says he has 'no regrets' about his handling of sensitive documents.EVAN VUCCI

President Biden told reporters Thursday that he has no regrets about how the administration handled the disclosure of the discovery of classified documents at his home and off-White House campus office, saying he was confident the investigations would show nothing untoward had occurred.

"As soon as we found the handful of documents were filed in the wrong place, we immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department," Biden said from a pier at Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California, where he was delivering remarks after touring storm damage in the state.

Chiding reporters briefly for asking about the documents instead of the emergency response to the California storm, Biden added, "We're fully cooperating and looking forward to this being resolved quickly. I think you're going to find there's nothing there.

“I have no regrets," Biden said in apparent response to a question about whether the White House should have disclosed the discovery of the documents to the public right when they were found, a few days before the midterm elections.

"I am following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do," Biden said. "There's no there there."

Biden has been mum on the documents since saying Jan. 11 he was "surprised" to find out that classified documents were found at his office at the Penn Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania in early November. In the ensuing days, it was reported that additional documents were found in the garage at his Wilmington, Delaware, home.

Biden said his garage – which holds his beloved Corvette – was locked, as was the cabinet where the documents were stored at the Penn Biden Center.

But the episode is embarrassing for the president because in September he lambasted former President Donald Trump for having highly classified documents – including some labeled "top secret" at his Mar-a-Lago home and resort.

The two cases differ, from the facts now available, since Trump's home is open to paying guests, including foreign nationals, who dine and attend events there. It's not clear if anyone could have gotten near Biden's garage. House Republicans have asked for a visitor's log detailing who has gone to Biden's Delaware home, but the White House said it does not keep such records.

Further, Biden's team disclosed the discovery of the documents right away, while the documents at Trump's home became an issue only after the National Archives and Records Administration went after him to return documents they knew had not been turned over.

Trump then fought the request, and the FBI searched after obtaining a subpoena signed by a federal judge. Trump's lawyer then signed an affidavit saying everything had been handed in, but government investigators found still more government documents in his residence after the lawyer, Christina Bobb, signed the affidavit.

The White House has been at war with the press corps for more than a week, as Biden spokespeople have refused to answer questions about the documents, including why the public wasn't told right away whether the White House intends to cooperate with the House Oversight Committee and why the White House keeps declining to talk about the documents.

That has not stopped the press corps from asking about the documents daily, however.