However, the news didn’t reach Mr Biden until January 31.
Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was reportedly too “focused” on a trip to Asia to to take notice of the spy balloon.
A senior US official said: “They weren’t paying attention.”
By this point, the balloon had traveled across half of Canada and then re-entered the US over Montana.
During its flight, data was being sent back to Beijing.
The story got national coverage after the Billings Gazette in Montana posted images of the balloon on February 2.
The US Air Force shot the balloon down over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina on February 4.
In June, Mr Biden told reporters: “I don’t think the leadership knew where it was, and knew what was in it, and knew what was going on.
“I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional.?
“There was no intention to keep this from Congress at any point,” a Biden administration official said, contending that the extended silence was necessary to “protect intel equities related to finding and tracking” the spycraft.
A Biden administration official said that “there was no intention to keep this from Congress at any point”, adding that the extended silence was necessary to “protect intel equities related to finding and tracking” the spycraft.
