Experts and former officials weighed in on the FBI\u2019s search targeting President Joe Biden\u2019s home, saying that the president may have consented to the search because of the threat of a search warrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDOJ took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President\u2019s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President,\u201d Bob Bauer, Biden\u2019s personal lawyer, said in a statement on Saturday, confirming the search. \u201cDOJ also took for further review personally handwritten notes from the vice-presidential years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Fitzpatrick confirmed to news outlets that the \u201cFBI executed a planned, consensual search of the President\u2019s residence in Wilmington, Delaware.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy McCarthy, however, wrote Saturday that Biden had no choice on whether to allow the FBI to search his home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBiden didn\u2019t consent to FBI search [because] he\u2019s Mr Cooperation. He consented [because] there was probable cause of crimes,\u201d McCarthy\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter. \u201cIf he didn\u2019t agree, next step would\u2019ve been special counsel getting a search warrant (ie, judicial finding of probable cause). Wanted to avoid that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Saturday, Bauer issued another statement and said\u00a0Biden and the White House were cooperating fully with the Justice Department investigation. Previously, classified documents were discovered at Biden\u2019s residence and office, leading Attorney General Merrick Garland to announce a special counsel investigation earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt the outset of this matter, the President directed his personal attorneys to fully cooperate with the Department of Justice,\u201d Bauer told news outlets. \u201cAccordingly, having previously identified and reported to DOJ a small number of documents with classification markings at the President\u2019s Wilmington home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the interest of moving the process forward as expeditiously as possible, we offered to provide prompt access to his home to allow DOJ to conduct a search of the entire premises for potential vice-presidential records and potential classified material,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A former prosecutor told<\/a> ABC News last week that Biden\u2019s situation differs from former President Donald Trump because Biden\u2019s \u201cself-reporting\u201d of the classified documents. In Trump\u2019s case, the former president, however, has said he declassified the alleged classified documents that were found at his home during the unprecedented FBI raid in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI never heard of a situation where the FBI goes in and just does a search because somebody self-reports,\u201d former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman told ABC News. \u201cNormally, even in a criminal case, what you normally do in the first instance, unless you have some reason to believe that somebody is lying to you or is going to destroy records or is doing something untoward as you had with the Trump situation \u2026 you just give a grand jury subpoena.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read the full story\u00a0here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n