Sen. Chris Murphy asked the Government Accountability Office to review President Trump’s use of his authority to classify documents, alleging the commander in chief abused his power for political means.
The Connecticut Democrat sent the GAO his request on Thursday, according to Politico, citing a letter from Vice President Mike Pence’s aide, Jennifer Williams, which Pence’s office classified during the House’s impeachment investigation.
“There was absolutely nothing in that document that should have been classified,” Murphy said. “It was only classified because it was politically hurtful to the president in the middle of an impeachment proceeding, and you are not allowed, as president of the United States, to keep information from the public simply because it’s going to hurt you politically.”
Murphy is also seeking information on whether members of Congress can challenge whether a document should be classified or not.
“Right now, the only thing we can do is declassify it ourselves, which I do not think is a solution,” he said, “but, if this doesn’t get better, then I do think we need to think about processes by which a third party can weigh in and decide to unclassify something that’s just a political embarrassment.”
Williams gave her letter to the House Intelligence Committee as part of her testimony. The letter related to a July 25 phone call Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Williams described as “unusual” and “inappropriate.” A whistleblower complaint about that conversation, in which Trump pressed Zelensky to investigate his political rivals, was the impetus for impeachment proceedings.
The letter was turned over to the Senate as part of the upper chamber’s trial over Trump’s impeachment. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts denied admitting the letter into the trial as evidence.
House Democrats complained openly during the Senate trial over Trump’s impeachment that the letter did not contain any sensitive information and did not need to be classified. Democrats accused the White House of attempting to hide politically damaging information. Trump was acquitted on two charges on Wednesday, one week after it was reported that Williams was leaving her role at the White House two months ahead of her planned departure.
