Antony Blinken says he had no knowledge of government documents taken to Penn Biden Center

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said he would cooperate with the special counsel investigating how classified documents were discovered at Joe Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington.

Blinken was managing director of the center for two years. 

‘I was surprised to learn that there were any government records taken to the Penn Biden Center,’ he said in his first public comments about the issue.

‘I had no knowledge of it at the time.

‘The White House of course has indicated that the administration is cooperating fully with the review that the Justice Department has undertaken.

‘And I of course would cooperate with that review myself.’

Rob Crilly, Senior U.s. political reporter for DailyMail.com 

Blinken is Biden’s most trusted foreign policy wonk and served as his national security adviser when he was vice president.

They stayed close when Biden left office, and Blinken was managing director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which was affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania but located in Washington.

It was there that classified documents were found in November last year. The discovery triggered a scandal that has dominated headlines for 10 days with a drip, drip, drip of revelations about who knew what and when.

Earlier, the White House tried to shrug off criticism of its piecemeal disclosures, insisting that it may have to withhold information to protect the Justice Department probe.

‘We’re endeavoring to be as transparent and informative to you all in the media, to the public as we can consistent with respecting the integrity of an ongoing Justice Department investigation,’ Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel’s office, told reporters.