HOW WE BEHAVE WHEN WE'RE INNOCENT:

Mr. Biden's personal lawyers, led by Bob Bauer, told the Justice Department they had no basis to believe official records had gone anywhere but the Penn Biden Center after it notified them on Nov. 10 that it was scrutinizing the classified files. The lawyers stopped conducting their own review of how the documents could have gotten there and told the department what steps they had taken up to that point, the people said.

The Biden legal team also said they would inform the Justice Department if any government records from his vice presidency were later located elsewhere or they learned a reason to believe such files might be in another location. Soon after, Mr. Garland assigned John R. Lausch, a U.S. attorney in Chicago who had been appointed by Mr. Trump, to determine whether a special counsel should be installed.

Mr. Biden's lawyers initially hoped the Justice Department's preliminary inquiry would be brief. But as weeks passed, they decided as a matter of due diligence -- and not because of any new information -- that it made sense to check the boxes in the garage, too, the people said; the lawyers did not inform the Justice Department ahead of time.

On Dec. 20, once they found several classified records in those boxes, they notified the Justice Department, which prompted discussions about whether any further such files might be in the main residence.

Against that backdrop, Mr. Biden's personal lawyers decided they would search several work and storage areas inside the living area of the house, the people said; this time, they told the Justice Department of the plan and said they would let the government know of the results.

After finding a classified page in one of those rooms on Jan. 11, they stopped searching and alerted the Justice Department. When law enforcement officials came to retrieve that page, five more classified pages were discovered in the same area.

Everyone involved understood and agreed that the discovery of those six pages meant that the government would have to conduct its own search of the work and storage areas in the house that the Biden legal team had identified, the people said. But the Biden legal team invited the F.B.I. to also search every room in the residence -- including bathrooms, bedrooms and the utility room, the people said.

The rationale, the people said, was that an independent search by the F.B.I. would allow a swift and definitive determination of whether any more classified files were inappropriately stored at the house.

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