Justice Department agents conducted two searches on Thursday in the New York City area, The New York Times reported , citing two unnamed sources with familiarity in the matter.

In October, Ms Biden reported multiple personal items stolen in a burglary to federal authorities, including the diary, prompting the DOJ to begin an investigation

A conservative website, separate from Project Veritas, later published dozens of its handwritten pages, claiming it had received the materials from a whistleblower at a media organisation which was refusing to run stories from the diary until after the election.

Project Veritas, a right-wing group known for its use of undercover video recordings against media outlets and progressive groups, maintains it is an investigative media outlet, while a federal judge ruled in October it wasn't out of line for the subjects of one such sting to call the group a " political spying operation ."

In addition to the searches, the FBI has also reportedly reach out to at least one person who worked for Project Veritas as part of the probe.

The Independent has reached out to the FBI for comment.

Though Project Veritas itself did not publish the diary, the site that did is registered to the same Wyoming address as Richard Seddon, a former British spy who has trained Veritas personnel in the past, according to the Times . Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe was also once president of a company registered at the same address. The searches occurred in lower Manhattan and another in suburban Westchester County, just outside New York City.