Hmmmmm. Until now, the White House has left the impression that Joe Biden’s retreat at Rehoboth Beach had no involvement in his classified-material scandal.

Is the Department of Justice merely trying to confirm that — or is there a specific reason why FBI agents are currently conducting a search of Biden’s beach house? Both NBC and CBS broke the news a few minutes ago:

The FBI is searching President Joe Biden’s beach house outside Rehoboth Beach, Del. on Wednesday morning, two sources familiar with the situation told NBC News.

The New York Post wonders if the DoJ has decided that Biden might not be the most reliable source of information:

The FBI is searching President Biden’s Delaware vacation home for classified documents, CBS reported Wednesday morning.

Biden’s legal team said this month it had searched the Rehoboth Beach home and found no mishandled papers. However, similar assurances were given about the president’s Wilmington home before more records were found there by the FBI on Jan. 20.

This raises all sorts of questions. First, as I posited above, the FBI doesn’t just show up for searches without some sort of predicate. That may be as simple as an invitation from Biden, of course. He might have decided — finally — that the best way to deal with this scandal is to rip off the Band-Aid and end the drip-drip revelations that keep seizing news cycles. However, it may also be that Biden and/or his attorneys found classified material stored improperly at that house too, thus necessitating a more thorough search.

Another complicating factor is Biden’s extensive use of the Rehoboth Beach house as a weekend White House. Has that been authorized as a classified-info storage facility for that work? If so, then the issue would depend on when the material got stored at that house. If not, that would seem like a very sloppy approach. If all that’s found in Rehoboth is material from Biden’s presidency, though, this is a more minor issue than the material found in Wilmington and the Penn Biden Center.

That also raises another question, though. What about Biden’s other home?

They are going to have to search Biden's Virginia home, and storage facilities too, aren't they?

This is so dumb. The Biden team, led by Klain, bungled this entire thing. https://t.co/8QICfodx0U

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) February 1, 2023

I’d guess that the DoJ will have to get around to checking out that residence, too. Stay tuned for updates.

Update: Bob Bauer issued a statement that makes it sound as though the DoJ initiated this, not Biden:

The FBI is currently searching President Biden’s Rehoboth home pic.twitter.com/2RpjtUfHBs

— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) February 1, 2023

“We agreed to cooperate” is not equivalent to “We invited them to check Biden’s other residences.” It still could be that the DoJ or the special counsel wanted to end the ambiguity up front. It could be something else, too. Anyone watching the grounds in McLean?

Update: Should we believe this?

FBI finds no classified documents in Biden's Rehoboth home after a search from 8:30am-12p, per Biden's attorney

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 1, 2023

Perhaps. But I wonder whether the FBI plans to search the Biden home in McLean, and when the University of Delaware allows a search through Biden’s files from his Senate years.

Update: Um … this sounds interesting:

NEW from Biden's personal atty – FBI Rehoboth search is over after about 4hrs.

No classified docs were found, but also:

"Consistent with the process in Wilmington, the DOJ took for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as VP.”

— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) February 1, 2023

Why would they take those materials if the information was not classified?