Multiple Biden aides have been interviewed by federal law enforcement in classified document review

WASHINGTON — Multiple aides who worked for President Joe Biden in the final days of the Obama administration have been interviewed by federal law enforcement officials reviewing how classified documents ended up in his Delaware residence and a Washington office, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Kathy Chung, who was Biden’s executive assistant while he was vice president and helped pack up his vice presidential office in January 2017, is among those who have been interviewed, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing inquiry. Chung currently serves as deputy director of protocol for Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

One of the sources said that those who were asked to be interviewed by law enforcement officials complied “quickly.”

“The people who were boxing [up the vice presidential office] had no idea that there was anything in there that shouldn’t leave the White House,” the source said. “There was no decision made to take certain documents that should have been presidential records or classified.”

The sources did not know if all interviews of the aides were complete.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Chung and the other aides being interviewed.

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder referred all questions about Chung’s interview to the Department of Justice.

Federal investigators’ decision to interview staff from Biden’s vice presidential office followed the discovery in November of fewer than a dozen classified documents as they packed up his office space at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington.

On Thursday, the White House acknowledged that documents with classified markings had been found in a garage at Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware.

NBC News reported on Wednesday that there was at least one additional set of documents in addition to the Washington tranche.

In a statement Thursday, Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber said the documents were found during a search for documents in Biden’s two homes in Delaware.

“All but one of these documents were found in storage space in the president’s Wilmington residence garage. One document consisting of one page was discovered among stored materials in an adjacent room,” Sauber said.

No documents were found in Biden’s residence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.