WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has told the Senate Intelligence Committee that it is “actively working” to educate lawmakers about potential national security risks after classified documents were discovered in the possession of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, according to a letter shared by a source familiar with the matter.
In the letter, which was sent Saturday to Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the committee’s chair and vice chair, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote: “We are working with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to support the provision of information that fulfills the Committee’s responsibilities without jeopardizing the ongoing investigations of the Special Prosecutor.
“Although one of the special advisers was only appointed on January 12, the prosecutors in both cases are actively working to allow the exchange of information with the committee,” added Uriarte, referring to the two special advisers appointed to oversee separate investigations of the Biden and Trump documents. cases.
CBS News first reported the letter.
Warner and Rubio requested a damage assessment, as well as details about the contents of the documents, after the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida.
Senators from both parties expressed their frustration after walking out of a closed-door briefing last week with Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, who refused to show them copies of classified documents discovered at Trump’s Florida resort, Biden’s office and his home in Delaware.
Haines also declined to discuss the confidential material, citing ongoing investigations by the special counsel, according to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who attended the classified briefing.
In a joint appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday, Warner and Rubio called for immediate oversight of the documents.
“We are united in that we have to find a way to do our job. That means we need these documents,” Warner said. «We’re not interested in the timeline, the tick-tock, who has what, who did that.»
This month, the Justice Department informed Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, that it could not share information about «pending investigations,» which include the special counsel’s dual investigations into the handling of the classified documents. Jordan announced this month that the committee had opened an investigation into classified Obama-era documents found in Biden’s possession.