Lawmakers from both parties are frustrated that they have been kept in the dark regarding the contents of classified documents found both at President Biden’s home and that of former President Donald Trump, but the Justice Department says they are trying to get them something.
In a letter sent Saturday to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Vice Chair Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte said the Justice Department was working on getting at least some information for them.
“We are working with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to support the provision of information that will satisfy the Committee’s responsibilities without harming the ongoing Special Counsel investigations,” Uriarte wrote.
Warner and Rubio, meanwhile, have continued to call for being able to see the documents themselves. Both men appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday to address the matter.
GOP SEN. RUBIO, DEM SEN. WARNER SAYS LACK OF ACCESS TO BIDEN, TRUMP DOCS ‘CANNOT STAND’
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 13: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and members of Congress hold a news conference on the benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits at the VFW Building on April 13, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)
(Paul Morigi/Getty Images)
“These are probably materials we already have access to, we just don’t know which ones they are,” Rubio said.
And it’s not about being nosy, you know, here’s the bottom line: if, in fact, those documents were very sensitive, the materials were sensitive, and they pose a counterintelligence or national security threat to the United States, then the intelligence agencies are tasked with the job of coming up with ways to mitigate that.”
“We have a right, as not only members of the Intelligence Committee, but as part of the leadership to view virtually every classified document,” Warner pointed out. “But we’ve got a problem, in terms of both classification levels, how senior elected officials when they leave government, how they handle documents. We’ve had too many examples of this.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) speaks during an oversight hearing with the Senate Rules and Administration in the Russell Senate Office Building on December 07, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
((Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images))
LAW PROFESSOR JONATHAN TURLEY SAYS BIDEN SHOULD LIFT ‘BAR ON PUBLIC ACCESS TO THE DELAWARE DOCUMENTS’
The Senate Intelligence Committee leaders went so far as to threaten to use their positions to withhold resources from intelligence agencies if they do not comply.
“There are things we need to do as a committee every year to authorize a moving around of funds,” Rubio said. “I think the Director of National Intelligence and other heads of intelligence agencies are aware of that. At some point, I’d prefer for them just to call us this morning or tomorrow or whenever and say, ‘Look, this is the arrangement that we think we can reach so that the overseers can get access to this.’ I’d prefer not to go down that road, but it’s one of the pieces of leverage we have as Congress.”
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Warner said they would “figure out a way to make sure that we get that access so that we can not only tell the American people, but we’ve got another 85 U.S. senators who are not on the Intelligence Committee who look to us to get those assurances.”
Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.