Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden (Getty Images)

Former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden considered on Thursday that US President Joe Biden seems to have gotten away with holding on to more classified documents than many whistleblowers.

A couple of days ago, the White House confirmed that in November, Biden's lawyers found classified documents while clearing space in his office at the Penn Center, a Washington-based think tank. The White House's special counsel said the aides immediately contacted the US National Archives, which in turn forwarded the information to the Justice Department.

CBS News, which reported first on the documents, cited two sources with knowledge of the inquiry as saying that roughly 10 classified documents were found.

"Worth noting that the President seems to have absconded with more classified documents than many whistleblowers. For comparison, Reality Winner [convicted of leaking the National Security Agency report] was sentenced to 5 YEARS for just one document," Snowden tweeted.

"Meanwhile Biden, Trump, Clinton, Petraeus... these guys have dozens, hundreds [of documents]. No jail," he pointed out.

Worth noting that the President seems to have absconded with more classified documents than many whistleblowers. For comparison, Reality Winner was sentenced to 5 YEARS for just one document.
Meanwhile Biden, Trump, Clinton, Petraeus... these guys have dozens, hundreds. No jail.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 11, 2023

According to Snowden, the real scandal is that the US Department of Justice found out about the matter a week prior to the midterm elections and decided to remain silent about this case.

The real scandal isn't that Biden had classified documents coming out of his socks, because sadly they've all been doing it.
The scandal is that the DOJ found out about it a week prior to the midterm elections and chose to suppress the story, conferring a partisan advantage. https://t.co/Zgx5FEpPeH
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 12, 2023

On Monday, media reported that US Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a federal prosecutor to investigate how the classified materials ended up in the office.

In a related context, CNN cited a source familiar with the matter as saying that the classified documents dated between 2013 and 2016 are related to Ukraine, Iran, and the United Kingdom.

Earlier, US media reported, citing unnamed sources, that aides to Biden had discovered at least one additional batch of classified documents in another location that was used by him after serving as vice president.

According to NBC News, the classification level, number, and exact location of the additional documents were not immediately clear, adding that it was also not clear when the additional documents were discovered.

On Tuesday, Senator Mark Warner, the Intelligence Committee's Democratic chairman, said he requested a briefing on the first batch of the Biden documents. In the same context, a spokesperson for Senator Marco Rubio, the committee's Republican vice chair, said Rubio and Warner had written to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, asking for access to the classified documents.

The recent findings have drawn comparisons to the FBI's August 2022 raid on Trump's Mar-a-logo residence in Florida, which recovered more than 300 classified documents that were once in the former US President's possession. Trump said he wondered when US authorities would raid Biden's home.