Congressional intelligence leaders will be briefed this week on the classified documents cases involving President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and former Vice President Mike Pence, a staffer for House Intelligence Committee Chair Michael Turner (R-Ohio) told The Epoch Times on Feb. 6.
Turner first announced that a briefing will take place while speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd on Feb. 5. Neither he nor his staffer offered a specific date for the prospective briefing.
The staffer confirmed that the briefing will be for the “Gang of Eight,” a group of eight members of Congress who are kept aware of classified intelligence matters.
In addition to Turner, the “Gang of Eight” includes the House Intelligence Committee’s ranking member, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.); Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.); Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.); and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
The Epoch Times reached out to committee staff to ask if Turner had received either or both of those briefings.
Turner drew attention to some apparent inconsistencies in the Biden administration’s handling of the Trump documents, which led to the execution of a search warrant by the FBI at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
“The Biden administration told the American public that they raided Donald Trump’s home because it was a national security risk. But what we found in the intelligence community and the intelligence committee is that the Biden administration had not engaged at all anyone who was in national security on the issue of threats from these documents,” he said.
“It took Congress to step in and say, ‘We want a security threat.’ And then they tried to deny giving the briefing to us from that threat.”
Balloon Elevates Suspicion
Turner and Todd also discussed the Chinese surveillance balloon that crossed the United States in recent days.
U.S. fighter jets shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.
Turner said a balloon flyover had occurred earlier under the Biden administration, citing a briefing he had received.
Yet he struck a less certain note when asked about the administration’s claims that Chinese surveillance balloons had passed over the United States multiple times while Trump was president.
“The president [Biden] allowed this to go across our most sensitive sites, and wasn’t even going to tell the American public,” Turner said.
“It sounds like he did put the order in on Wednesday to shoot it down, and that it’s the military that said, ‘Hey, it’s not safe yet.’ Do you accept that?” Todd asked.
“No, there’s no excuses here. When this first occurred last time during this administration—remember, this is the third year of this administration—they should have been preparing for this,” Turner answered, later adding that the military should have downed the craft when it was spotted over Alaska.
He questioned the administration’s priorities as to security briefings, suggesting that the emphasis on Trump’s documents was misplaced.
“What’s interesting is that the moment this balloon became public, I got a notice not from the administration that I’m going to get a briefing on this balloon, but they have to rush to Congress now to talk to us about Donald Trump’s documents,” Turner said.
The lack of any briefing on the balloon apparently hadn’t changed since Feb. 5, according to the Turner staffer.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Biden administration for comment but didn’t receive a response by press time.
