WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden's decision to allow the FBI to search his Delaware home last week exposes him to new negative attention and embarrassment in the aftermath of the earlier discovery of classified documents at that home and a former office. However, it is a legal and political calculation that his aides hope will pay off in the long run as he prepares to run for reelection.

The extraordinary, nearly 13-hour search of the sitting president's Wilmington home by FBI agents is the latest political blunder for Biden, who promised to restore decorum to the office after his predecessor, Donald Trump's, tumultuous tenure.

However, Biden's actions go beyond simply complying with federal investigators assigned to look into the discovery of the records. The president hopes to demonstrate that, unlike Trump, he never intended to keep classified materials, a key distinction that experts say reduces the risk of criminal liability.

According to White House spokesman Ian Sams, Biden's attorneys invited the FBI to conduct the search. "This was a voluntary, proactive offer to the DOJ by the president's personal lawyers to have access to the home," he said, adding that it demonstrated "how seriously" Biden takes the issue.

"If I were a lawyer and I represented the president of the United States, I would want to show that I am being fully cooperative, and that I am projecting transparency to the American public, and I do take this seriously," Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department national security official, said.

That's not to say she agrees with how he handled the documents.

"I believe he was wrong to have those documents there," she said. "It demonstrates lapses at the end of the administration," when Biden was finishing his term as Vice President under Barack Obama.

On Nov. 2, a week before the midterm elections, Biden's personal attorneys discovered classified materials while clearing out an office Biden had used at the Penn Biden Center in Washington. Since that initial discovery, Biden's team has taken a flexible approach to the investigation, even if they haven't been completely forthcoming in public.

The White House has cited the “ risk” of sharing information “that’s not complete" and potentially interfering with the probe to justify not revealing more information to the public.

They didn’t acknowledge the first discovery before the elections, though they swiftly notified the National Archives, returned the documents the day after they were found, and coordinated subsequent searches and discoveries with the Department of Justice.

They also are not standing in the way of interviews with staff, including Kathy Chung, Biden’s executive assistant when he was vice president, who helped oversee the packing of boxes that were taken to the Penn Biden Center.

She feels some responsibility but had “absolutely” no knowledge of classified documents being packed, according to a person familiar with her thinking. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Biden himself has said he was surprised the documents were in his possession. Last Thursday, frustrated at all the focus, he told reporters: “There’s no there there.”

It all fits a theme: Biden and his aides maintain the document mishandling was not intentional. As far as Biden’s possible legal exposure goes, the question of intention is critical: Federal law does not allow anyone to store classified documents in an unauthorized location, but it’s only a prosecutable crime when someone is found to have “knowingly” removed the documents from a proper place.

However, welcoming the FBI search could backfire depending on what else is discovered. Agents obtained an additional batch of classified items, as well as some of Biden's handwritten notes and materials from his time as vice president and senator, last week.

This is in addition to the documents submitted by Biden's lawyers. As the investigation continues, agents may choose to search the Penn Biden Center and Biden's other home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Sams declined to say whether Biden would approve additional searches, instead referring the matter to the DOJ, which has asked the White House not to publicize searches ahead of time.

Democrats and Republicans have both criticized Biden's handling of the situation. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the president should be "embarrassed by the situation."

One key litmus test for Biden's strategy revolves around whether the president will agree to an interview with federal investigators if asked. So far, White House officials have refused to say whether or not he would do so.

"We don't have different rules for Democrats and Republicans," Garland said in response to a question on Monday. In each case, we apply the facts under the law in a neutral and nonpartisan manner. That is what we always do, and it is what we are doing in the situations you mention."

It’s not clear whether agents in the Biden investigation have progressed beyond the question of intent. The White House has not answered key questions, including how classified information from his time as vice president could have ended up inside his Delaware home. But Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to head the probe given the sensitive politics around it.

In 2016, when the FBI recommended against criminal charges for Hillary Clinton over classified emails she sent and received via a private server when she was secretary of state, then-FBI Director James Comey said the Justice Department, in choosing which cases to bring over the past century, has looked for evidence of criminal intent, indications of disloyalty to the U.S., the retention of vast quantities of classified documents, or any effort to obstruct justice.

The investigation of Trump also centers on classified documents that ended up at his home. In that case, though, the Justice Department issued a subpoena for the return of documents that Trump had refused to give back, obtained a warrant, and seized more than 100 documents during a dramatic August search of his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. Federal agents are investigating potential violations of three federal laws, including one that governs gathering, transmitting, or losing defense information under the Espionage Act.

Trump and some of his supporters have been outspoken, claiming Biden is guilty of worse mishandling of classified documents than the Democrats sanctimoniously accuse Trump of being. The former president is sure to press that accusation vigorously as he campaigns to regain the White House.

“This is not ‘legitimate’ transparency from President Biden, who once claimed he’d have the most transparent administration in history,” said Oversight Committee spokesperson Jessica Collins, who added that the panels' Republicans would use “all possible tools” to get answers.

Responding to Comer`s requests for copies of the documents taken from Biden`s home, the White House counsel`s office on Monday said it no longer had possession of them. It said the White House would “accommodate legitimate oversight interests,” while also “respecting the separation of powers and the constitutional and statutory obligations of the executive branch generally and the White House in particular.”

The Republicans, meanwhile, have sought to use their new-found powers in the House, where they regained the majority this month, to investigate Biden`s handling of the documents and hope to capitalize on the investigation, even as they have said investigating the documents retained by Trump is not a priority.