Senate Intelligence Committee to get tough with Biden administration stonewalling

Sarah Westwood

April 11, 06:00 AM April 11, 06:17 AM

Senate Intelligence Committee members could soon reach a breaking point in their fight with the Biden administration over access to classified documents found in the homes of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Months of negotiations over whether lawmakers should get to read the contents of the classified documents have produced no progress, with the Justice Department continuing to cite the existence of two criminal investigations in their denials to the committee.

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Now, Senate lawmakers say they will consider creative ways to pressure the Biden administration to cooperate.

Proposals have included withholding funding and even putting limits on the authority of intelligence agencies. Committee members have said they need to review the underlying documents not to determine whether Biden or Trump mishandled them but to gauge how effectively intelligence agencies have managed the potential fallout of the documents’ contents falling into the wrong hands.

Frustration has also mounted over how top administration officials have traded blame for the delays.

Senate Intelligence Committee members say the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has blamed the Justice Department for preventing its cooperation, while the Justice Department has said it has no intention of blocking the committee’s access to the documents.

“I’m surprised to hear the DNI used the word blocking,” Attorney General Merrick Garland testified before Congress on March 28 when pressed by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) about the documents. “I would say we are working well with them. We believe that there is an accommodation possible.”

Garland said the Justice Department has confidence that the administration could find a way to satisfy the committee’s interest without threatening the criminal investigations.

“We intend to work out an arrangement to accommodate those interests,” Garland said.

But no such arrangement has materialized in the weeks since that exchange, and lawmakers appear to be losing their patience.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the committee’s top Republican, said Friday that intelligence community funding could be on the chopping block if intelligence officials continue to stonewall lawmakers.

“They’re ruining their relationship with a committee that has always been very responsible and a very good working partner with them,” Rubio told the Hill.

“There’s no doubt that there’s going to be consequences for it. There has to be,” Rubio added. “We have to protect our role on oversight. And the way you do that, unfortunately, is to leverage [the power] that appropriations and authorizations give us.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) recently suggested the committee could threaten the authority of the intelligence community if lawmakers don’t get answers.

“I am done with the lack of willingness of the administration to address this,” Warner said during a recent appearance on MSNBC. “Their position does not pass the smell test. We are going to put limitations on what the IC does, and I am going to encourage my colleagues to do the same on the Justice Department.”

And Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has floated the prospect of blocking Biden nominees until intelligence agencies comply with the committee’s requests.

He said in January that a bipartisan group of lawmakers agreed with the need to “impose pain” on the Biden administration in order to force its hand.

Lawmakers from both parties have noted that the Biden administration’s refusal to share the documents departs from precedent.

During the Trump-era special counsel investigation involving Russia, the Senate Intelligence Committee received more information in a shorter time frame despite the existence of a criminal investigation.

The appointment of two special counsels, one each to oversee investigations of the mishandling of classified documents by both Trump and Biden, has virtually frozen the ODNI’s cooperation with lawmakers.

Senate Intelligence Committee members left a January briefing angry about the lack of answers from Avril Haines, the intelligence director.

The top two members of that committee, Warner and Rubio, as well as the top two leaders of the House and Senate and the top two members of the House Intelligence Committee, a group known as the “Gang of Eight,” left another briefing in February unsatisfied with the answers they received from Haines and other intelligence community leaders.

The inability of Senate Intelligence Committee members to gain insight into the contents of the classified documents amid the special counsel investigation stands in stark contrast to the amount of information about at least the Trump investigation that has ended up in news reports.

Anonymous sources have provided information to reporters about evidence the special counsel’s offices have amassed, including specific documents that have become part of the case and the latest suspicions prosecutors have about Trump’s conduct.

Earlier in the investigation, anonymous sources also characterized to reporters the contents of some of the classified documents discovered in Trump’s home, such as naming Iran as a country about which Trump had classified information and noting that some of the documents related to nuclear secrets.

Spokesmen for Warner and Rubio did not return requests for comment.

Mark Warner wants 'more information' about Trump and Biden classified docs

Ryan King

March 26, 10:04 AM March 26, 10:04 AM

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) indicated that he was not satisfied with the intelligence community's briefing about classified documents found in the residences of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.

Warner and his counterpart, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL), have been briefed on the situation and have long clamored for more information about the classified documents. The senator said that he is willing to "ratchet up the pressure" to get more information.

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"We need more information about these documents. And more importantly, we need to [learn about] what the intel community has done to mitigate the harm. And we're still in conversations with the Justice Department," Warner told CBS's Face the Nation.

Rubio previously conveyed that a briefing on the matter "left much to be desired." Warner concurred, noting that sentiment is "completely bipartisan" and echoed by all members of the intelligence committee.

"Our interest from the intel side is not about the mishandling by Trump, Biden, Pence — that's a criminal investigation. Our job is to oversee the intelligence community," Warner told CNN's State of the Union. "Clearly, I want to make sure that if they fell into the wrong hands, there has been mitigation efforts."

Warner also said that the panel was weighing options to increase pressure on the intelligence community.

"We have some additional ways we can ratchet up the pressure on the IC. Sen. Rubio and I, frankly, this is completely bipartisan. All the Democrats and all the Republicans on the committee feel the same. We also are going to try to press the Justice Department harder to make sure that we do can do our job," he told CNN.

Trump, Biden, and Pence have all come under scrutiny after classified documents were recovered at their residences. Special counsel Jack Smith has been tasked with overseeing Justice Department investigations related to Trump's handling of the sensitive material. Special Counsel Robert Hur is spearheading an inquiry pertaining to Biden.

Warner also re-upped his criticism of the Biden administration for not being transparent on the matter.

"The administration's position does not pass the smell test. We've got a job not to go into the legal ramifications but to make sure that the intelligence community has done what's right. And we've got some additional tools, we can restrict some of the spending," he added on Face the Nation.

Distinctive learn purchase throws intelligence briefing to Congress into question

Rachel Schilke

September 11, 04:19 PM September 11, 04:19 PM

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) expressed question about whether or not Congress will get an intelligence community briefing any time soon on damages arising from labeled documents identified at previous President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

The Virginia Democrat cited a judge's approval of Trump's motion for a specific grasp assessment of documents, which directed investigators to cease utilizing seized product for a criminal investigation, right after which prosecutors said the intelligence community was forced to pause its assessment of nationwide security pitfalls.

"My understanding is there is some problem since of the particular learn appointment by the choose in Florida, no matter whether they can short at this place," he reported Sunday on CBS News's Facial area the Country. "We need clarification on that from that decide as speedily as achievable, because it is vital that the intelligence committee management at least gets a briefing of the problems assessment."

He included that although the distinct facts of the confiscated resources are however not known, any mishandled intelligence could put resources in jeopardy.

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"The vice chairman and I have requested for a briefing of the damages that could have arisen from mishandling of this facts, and I consider it's our congressional obligation to have that oversight," Warner mentioned. "Don't forget, what is at stake below is the actuality that if some of these paperwork include human intelligence, and that information received out, [people] will die. If there were being penetration of indicators intelligence, literally many years of perform could be ruined."

U.S. District Decide Aileen Cannon granted Trump's ask for for a special learn regardless of the Justice Department's opposition, and the two sides have because turned in proposals for how to transfer forward, including nominees, accessibility, and pace of the 3rd-occasion overview. The Justice Division has reported it will attractiveness the buy granting an independent overview and questioned the judge in Florida to problem an crisis get to allow for investigators to carry on applying classified product because of to nationwide protection issues although the charm performs out.

Warner pressured he is not intrigued in attaining perception into an lively investigation but alternatively desires to complete Congress's oversight responsibilities — in this circumstance to evaluate no matter if there was injury completed to the "intelligence assortment and maintenance of techniques capacity."

"That is a harm assessment, that frankly, even the decide in Florida has stated, can carry on," he mentioned. "I may not concur with the decision of the decide in Florida, but I respect our Department of Justice. I respect the FBI. I assume they are attempting less than extraordinarily tricky circumstances to get it right, and we owe them the benefit of the doubt."