Jan. 10 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was "surprised" to learn that classified documents were found in an office he used after serving as vice president and that he is fully cooperating with investigators.
Biden made the comments during a press conference from the North American Leaders' Summit in Mexico City. His lawyers "did what they should have done," in turning over the documents they found in his office at the University of Pennsylvania.
Biden was the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Professor of Practice at Penn from 2017 to 2021. He delivered lectures and spoke to students but was not a full-time practicing instructor.
Biden said he is unaware of what the documents contain. About 10 documents kept in boxes in a locked closet were turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
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The House of Representatives, now led by a Republican majority, has launched a probe into how the documents were handled. The documents are marked with varying levels of classification.
"The president has previously called the mishandling of presidential records 'totally Irresponsible,'" wrote Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., referring to Biden's comments on former President Donald Trump's handling of classified documents at his Mar-A-Lago resort.
"The [Oversight and Accountability] Committee expects President Biden will receive equal treatment under the law given that he maintained classified documents in his unsecured office for several years with access to an unknown number of people."
Comer is chairman of the Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Comer directed White House counsel Stuart Delery to deliver several documents and pieces of information to the committee by Jan. 24, including the documents retrieved from the president's former office.
Biden's legal team willingly submitted the documents to the National Archives upon discovering them, while the documents seized from Trump were found in an FBI search.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Intelligence Committee chairman, requested a congressional briefing on the matter.
"From what we know so far, the latter is about finding documents with markings, and turning them over, which is certainly different from a months-long effort to retain material actively being sought by the government," Warner said in a statement to The Hill.
"But again, that's why we need to be briefed."
