The leadership of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said on Feb. 28 they were unsatisfied with the information offered to them in their briefing about the exposure of classified documents.
According to the statement, the senators’ briefing by members of the intelligence community, and the Department of Justice left “much to be desired.”
“While today’s meeting helped shed some light on these issues, it left much to be desired and we will continue to press for full answers to our questions in accordance with our constitutional oversight obligations.”
Warner and Rubio previously asked to view the records that the Justice Department had taken from President Joe Biden’s former office in Washington, his house in Wilmington, Delaware, and former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
They reportedly made the request in an effort to assess the risk that the two alleged violations of the Presidential Records Act presented to national security. The pair also requested risk assessments from top intelligence officers.
“Our letters explicitly recognized the need to protect the Department’s ongoing investigations. Mindful of the Department’s interests, the letters were narrowly tailored and only requested access to the relevant classified documents and an assessment of the risk to national security if the documents were to be exposed in public or to a foreign adversary,” the lawmakers said.
In the same letter, the senators also rejected the DOJ’s justification that the records can’t be released because of the current investigations.
“Our request is not unprecedented,” the senators said, referencing the argument that an ongoing investigation would prevent their viewing the documents.
“In other investigations involving the mishandling of classified information, the attorney general and the director of national intelligence have accommodated the legitimate oversight needs of this committee without detriment to any ongoing investigation.”
Both senators’ offices responded to The Epoch Times’s request for additional information by referencing the joint statement as their complete comments on the subject.