The US Justice Department is reviewing a batch of potentially classified documents found in the Washington office space of President Joe Biden’s former institute, the White House says.

Special counsel to the president Richard Sauber said “a small number of documents with classified markings” were discovered as President Biden’s personal lawyers were clearing out the offices of the Penn Biden Center.

The president kept an office there after he left the vice-presidency in 2017 until shortly before he launched his 2020 presidential campaign in 2019. The documents were found on November 2, 2022.

Mr Sauber said the lawyers immediately alerted the White House Counsel’s office, who notified the National Archives and Records Administration, which took custody of the documents the next day.

“Since that discovery, the president’s personal attorneys have co-operated with the archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives,” Mr Sauber said on Monday.

A person who is familiar with the matter but not authorised to discuss it publicly said Attorney-General Merrick Garland asked US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch to review the matter after the archives referred the issue to the department.

Mr Lausch was appointed to his post by former president Donald Trump.

The National Archives and the US Attorney’s Office in Chicago did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CBS was first to report on the discovery of the potentially classified documents.

The Justice Department for months has been investigating the retention of roughly 300 documents that were marked as classified and were recovered from Mr Trump’s Florida estate.

In that instance, prosecutors say, representatives of Mr Trump resisted requests to give back the full stash of classified documents and failed to fully comply with a subpoena that sought their return.

FBI agents in August served a search warrant at the Mar-a-Lago property, removing 15 boxes of records.

That investigation is being led by special counsel Jack Smith. Prosecutors have interviewed an array of Trump associates and have been using a grand jury to hear evidence.

– AAP