The National Archives asked President Biden’s attorneys to turn over a previously unknown stash of documents transferred to a Boston law office after classified documents were discovered at Mr. Biden’s Washington think tank in November.
The new detail was revealed amid 74 pages of emails between the National Archives and the president’s personal attorneys released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request on Friday.
“Please ensure that the boxes in your office in Boston remain secure in a locked space and are not accessed by anyone,” National Archives General Counsel Gary Stern wrote to Mr. Biden’s attorneys Patrick Moore and Bob Bauer.
The email was dated Nov. 7, five days after Mr. Biden’s lawyers say they first discovered the stash of classified documents.
Mr. Moore reportedly transferred a set of personal documents from the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement to his law office in Boston before classified documents were discovered.
There is no indication from the emails released on Friday that the documents transferred to Boston were classified.
On Nov. 8, Mr. Stern wrote to Mr. Biden’s attorneys to coordinate transferring the boxes from the Boston law office to the JFK library on Nov. 9.
Mr. Moore responded that he would be in Washington but that he would coordinate with his colleague to facilitate the transfer.
Classified government documents dating back to Mr. Biden’s time as vice president in the Obama White House were discovered at a Washington office building that he used when he was an honorary professor at the University of Pennsylvania on Nov. 2, just six days before the midterm elections.
The matter only became public two months later when it was uncovered by CBS News.
A second batch of classified documents was later found in Mr. Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, garage by White House aides. Mr. Biden’s staff notified the Justice Department that it had discovered the second batch on Dec. 20.
Those documents were publicly disclosed on Jan. 12.
Mr. Biden has said he had no misgivings about concealing his mishandling of government secrets from the public until months after classified documents were first discovered.