White House and Secret Service Say No Records of Visitors to President Biden's Private Residence in Delaware

JAKARTA - White House advisers and the Secret Service said Monday there were no visitor records for President Joe Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, home where classified documents from when he was vice president were found, because it was a private residence.

"Like every President in decades of modern history, his private residence was private," the White House Counsel's office said in a statement.

While the Secret Service, tasked with protecting current and past presidents and their families, does not "self-maintain visitor records of its own, as it is a private residence," agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

Earlier, Republican House of Representatives Oversight Committee Chair, James Comer, on Sunday requested visitor records to President Biden's Wilmington home, after classified documents were found in his den and garage there.

Republicans are seeking to compare the Biden papers case to that of former President Donald Trump, who is facing a federal criminal investigation, into how he handled classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021.

Democrats have searched unsuccessfully for visitor logs for Trump's Florida home for years.

Legal experts have noted differences between the two cases. The White House said President Biden's team had turned over the documents it found. Meanwhile, Trump had refused to do so until the FBI's search in August of his Palm Beach, Florida home.

President Biden's legal team says it has found classified documents relating to his time as vice president under President Barack Obama, at his home in Delaware and in Washington.

The material in his former office at the think tank was discovered in November, disclosures of which were made public after a CBS News report last week. His lawyers on Saturday reported finding five additional pages in his home.

Meanwhile, US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday last week appointed a special attorney to investigate President Biden's handling of sensitive government documents.

A separate special counsel is investigating Trump's handling of classified documents, as well as his failed attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss.