WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has told the Senate Intelligence Committee that it is “actively working” to inform lawmakers about the potential risks to national security 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 to Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the committee’s chairman and vice chairman, wrote to Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte: “We are working with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to assist the provision of information that meets the Committee’s responsibilities without prejudice to the Special Prosecutor’s ongoing investigations.
“While one of the special counsel was not appointed until January 12, prosecutors on both cases are actively working to facilitate information sharing with the commission,” Uriarte added, referring to the two special counsel appointed to oversee on separate examinations of the Biden and Trump documents. fallen.
CBS news first notice of the letter.
Warner and Rubio requested a damage assessment and details of the contents of the documents after the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Senators from both parties expressed frustration after leaving a closed-door briefing last week with National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, who refused to show them copies of the classified documents discovered at Trump’s Florida resort, Biden’s office and home in Delaware.
Haines also declined to discuss the sensitive material, citing ongoing special counsel investigations, according to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who attended the classified briefing.
In a joint appearance Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Warner and Rubio called for immediate scrutiny of the documents.
“We are united in the fact that we need to find a way to do our job. That means we need these documents,” Warner said. “We’re not interested in the timeline, the ticking, the who-has-what, who-did-that.”
The Justice Department this month informed Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said it could not share information about “ongoing investigations,” including the dual special counsel investigations into the handling of the classified documents. Jordan announced this month that the commission had opened an investigation into classified Obama-era documents found in Biden’s possession.