There's a key difference between the classified documents found at a former Biden office and the ones Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago, national security expert says

CBS News reported Monday classified documents were found at an office used by President Joe Biden.

The documents were found by Biden's attorneys and provided to the National Archives.

A legal expert said Biden's team appeared to have done "exactly what you're supposed to do."

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A US attorney is reviewing a handful of classified documents found at President Joe Biden's former office in Washington, CBS News reported Monday.

In a statement, Richard Sauber, the special counsel to President Biden, said the White House was cooperating with the National Archives and Records Administration and the Justice Department on the matter.

"The documents were discovered when the president's personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC," Sauber said.

Biden held a position at the center, run by the University of Pennsylvania, from 2017 to 2019.

The documents "were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives," Sauber said, adding that they were immediately handed over to the record-keeping agency.

The Washington Post on Monday evening reported roughly 10 documents were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy & Global Engagement, citing a person familiar with the investigation. The Office of the General Counsel notified the archives upon the discovery, and the agency quickly took control of the records, Sauber told the outlet.

The documents were found shortly before Attorney General Merrick Garland named the former federal prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel in mid-November to oversee two investigations related to former President Donald Trump.

Trump immediately pounced on the story.

"When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?" he posted on his social-media network.

Bradley P. Moss, a national security lawyer, told Insider that this looked like a routine matter with no allegation of criminal wrongdoing. He contrasted what we know about the case with that being built against Trump, who held boxes of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort even after their return had been demanded by the National Archives.

"Biden's team did exactly what you're supposed to do," Moss said. "When you find improperly stored classified documents, you immediately notify the government — and you turn it over immediately."

Classified documents are routinely misplaced, and this looks to be a routine investigation, perhaps motivated in part by a desire from the Justice Department to show it's impartial, Moss said. The nature of the investigation would change if the US attorney in charge of reviewing the documents, John Lausch, a Trump appointee, uncovered any evidence that Biden or his staff misled the National Archives.

"The reason Donald Trump is in criminal jeopardy right now isn't just because of the documents being improperly stored. It was the obstruction," Moss said. "That is why it has gotten to the point it has, where we're looking at the real possibility of a criminal indictment."

Correction: January 10, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misstated the name of a US attorney. His name is John Lausch, not Matt Lausch.