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- The DOJ was prepared to file a search warrant to raid Biden's home, CNN reported.
- Ultimately this wasn't necessary because Biden assented to the search, sources told the outlet.
- Why Biden's home wasn't raided, as Mar-a-Lago had been, has been a major GOP talking point.
The Department of Justice was prepared to issue a search warrant in pursuit of classified documents kept at President Joe Biden's home, sources told CNN. But that legal step wasn't necessary after Biden agreed to let its agents search the property, multiple sources told the network.
The DOJ also allowed Biden's lawyers to conduct their own search first, after extensive discussion on how to proceed, the outlet reported.
Biden's private home in Wilmington, Delaware, was searched on January 20, after Biden's lawyers found two sets of improperly stored classified documents — one in the office of a think tank, and another in Wilmington.
The revelation led to comparisons with the August 2022 raid on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, also in search of classified documents.
This latest CNN report backs up earlier expert views on how these processes tend to play out.
It also goes some way to addressing repeated accusations of double standards raised by Trump and his supporters.
As soon as the news broke about the first Biden document find, Trump took to Truth Social demanding that the FBI raid Biden's "many homes," apparently seeking to portray the two situations as identical.
National Security Attorney Bradley P. Moss earlier told Insider that "in theory" the FBI could go ahead and obtain a search warrant in Biden's instance. But, he said, "they generally will not do so in a situation like this when there is proper cooperation from the holder of the documents."
The prospect of a search warrant did not come up in the DOJ's conversations with the Biden camp, CNN reported.
Trump, like the Biden White House, has insisted he also cooperated "fully" with the FBI over documents improperly stored at Mar-a-Lago last year, as Fox News reported.
But evidence suggests that Trump and his legal team repeatedly refused and obfuscated in the face of a request from the National Archives over a period of more than a year.
Attorney General Merrick Garland released a heavily redacted version of the search warrant permitting the Mar-a-Lago raid.
It said that investigators had found probable cause, not only that the mishandled documents were on site but also "to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found at the premises."
Biden's White House Counsel Richard Sauber said the first batch of missing documents were not subject to an existing National Archives request, adding that the Biden admin pro-actively reported them the day they were found.
The Biden White house also said it has cooperated with all official requests.
The Wilmington DOJ search yielded six additional documents dating to Biden's vice-presidency and time in the Senate, which should have been handed over to the National Archives in 2017.
But there has been some internal irritation at the DOJ at the pace and manner in which the Biden camp has continued to search for documents and released information about it throughout the saga, sources told CNN.