FBI searches Biden's beach house amid classified documents investigation

The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s beach house outside Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on February 1 morning, two sources familiar with the situation told NBC News.

A third source familiar with the matter said no warrant was involved and the search was consensual. It is unclear whether FBI agents are searching for something they know about or if it’s a broad search for more classified documents. 

Biden's personal attorney, Bob Bauer, said in a statement that the Department of Justice was conducting the search with Biden's full support and cooperation.

"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. "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.”

Documents with classified markings were found earlier in Biden’s Wilmington residence and a Washington think tank office, but Bauer said earlier this month that no classified documents were found at the president's beach house. Biden's personal lawyers had searched the Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach residences for additional records, he said.

"The president’s personal attorneys located a potential record bearing classified markings at the Wilmington residence, among stored materials inside a room adjacent to the garage," Bauer said in the earlier statement. "Once the president’s personal attorneys found this document, the president’s personal attorneys left the document where it was found and suspended their search of the specific space where it was located. Following the search at the Wilmington residence, the attorneys proceeded to the Rehoboth residence and conducted a search there. No potential records were identified at the Rehoboth Beach residence, and the attorneys returned to Washington, D.C., late in the evening."

The FBI previously searched the offices of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in mid-November after classified documents were discovered there, NBC News reported Tuesday.

News of the FBI's search of Biden's beach house comes as former President Donald Trump has been under investigation after classified documents were found at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. FBI agents executed a search at Trump's Florida estate last year, and found more than 100 classified documents, including some marked top secret. Last December, two more documents with classified markings were found at a Florida storage facility not far from Mar-a-Lago and were turned over to the FBI.

A “small number” of classified documents were also discovered last month at former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home, the former vice president’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, said in a letter sent to the National Archives. Pence had asked “outside counsel” to look for records bearing classified markings, according to Jacob.