The White House approves of the intelligence community looking into whether former President Donald Trump‘s handling of classified documents undermined national security.
But White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stressed that President Joe Biden is “not involved” in the damage assessment, describing the project as Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines‘s “purview.”
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“It is an appropriate action for the director in the intelligence community to undertake, but, again, I’ll let them speak to the details of this,” Kirby said Monday.
Kirby told reporters last week that the NSC was not prepared to lead a damage assessment related to the classified materials seized during the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and office in Florida this month. The search was executed as part of an unsealed probable cause warrant for an investigation into potential Espionage Act and obstruction of justice charges. A heavily redacted affidavit noted the “government is conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to elaborate last week when she was asked to clarify Kirby’s original remarks.
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“I am answering your question,” she said. “When it comes to any underlying materials or any conduct, contents of the ongoing investigation, we are just — the independent Department of Justice investigation — we’re just not going to comment on it.”
