Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) criticized the Department of Justice for declining to share some of its findings with Congress regarding the investigations into the classified documents that were found at the personal residences of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.
Rubio hit out against the department for declining a request to provide nonpublic information on the classified materials, citing concerns it would interfere with investigations, according to a letter sent to committee leaders on Saturday. The DOJ response prompted outcry from Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee who have lamented they were unable to see what materials were found.
DOJ WORKING TO SHARE INFORMATION ON BIDEN AND TRUMP CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS: REPORT
“The ideal world is one in which the intelligence agencies recognize that we have oversight over those committees and they’re the owners of that material,” Rubio told reporters on Tuesday. “There really is no rational reason not to provide us insight into what those materials were. That’s the ideal outcome. I’m not sure that’s the one we will get.”
However, DOJ officials pledged to provide a report to the Senate Intelligence Committee that will satisfy lawmakers’ requests while not jeopardizing its investigations. Department officials noted they initially intended to brief lawmakers on the matter in September, but sources tell the Washington Examiner that scheduling conflicts blocked that from happening.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in November he would appoint special counsel Jack Smith to oversee the investigation into classified materials that were found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in August. Garland later appointed Robert Hur as the special counsel to oversee Biden’s case on Jan. 12, two months after documents were discovered at his Delaware residence.
FBI agents recovered about 33 boxes of roughly 11,000 documents during its August raid of Mar-a-Lago. Roughly 100 of those documents contained classified markings, with some being considered at the top secret level. Before that, the National Archives and Records Administration recovered 15 boxes from Trump in January 2022 containing “a lot” of classified materials. In total, officials have obtained roughly 300 documents with classified markings from the former president.
Biden’s attorneys initially found a batch of documents inside a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement on Nov. 2, prompting officials to turn over the materials to the National Archives. The National Archives then alerted the Justice Department about the finding on Nov. 4.
One month later, officials found additional classified materials at Biden’s personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware, on Dec. 20. Officials later found a handful of more classified documents after two additional searches at Biden’s Delaware residence in January.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Lawmakers from both parties have since called for investigations into the matter, pressing the DOJ for more information on whether the classified materials posed national security concerns.
“We’re asking for the intelligence community to share with us the classified information we have access to but can’t identify that were improperly stored in the private homes and/or think tank about these two former government officials,” Rubio said on Monday.
