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.

HOUSE INTELLIGENCE PANEL LEADERS FEAR ADDITIONAL LEAKS: 'INCREDIBLY DISTURBING'

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.

Trump on trial: Here are 7 key demands made of Donald in his subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee

Ryan King

October 22, 11:58 AM October 22, 11:58 AM

The Jan. 6 committee made good on its pledge to subpoena former President Donald Trump on Friday.

At the finale of the public hearing last week, committee members sent shockwaves throughout the Beltway by declaring their intention to subpoena Trump for testimony and documents. During the hearing, they lambasted him for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the coinciding efforts to overturn the 2020 election and insisted his testimony was needed.

"In short, you were at the center of the first and only effort by any U.S. President to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power, ultimately culminating in a bloody attack on our own Capitol and on the Congress itself," the panel wrote in a letter to Trump accompanying the subpoena.

JAN. 6 COMMITTEE SUBPOENAS DONALD TRUMP

Trump is required to deliver the requested documents by Nov. 4 and give testimony on Nov. 14.

At the heart of its demands, the panel wants Trump to sit for testimony and turn over his communications during the time surrounding the riot. But in the subpoena, investigators laid out 19 specific document demands to ensure their ask was crystal clear. Here are the top seven demands.

1. Communication on Jan. 6

Trump is required to turn over every single communication he had on Jan. 6, 2021, including through phone calls, text messages, and applications such as Signal. The panel wants the messages regardless of whether he was "an active or passive participant" in the communication.

2. Documents about the Justice Department and 2020 election

The panel is demanding all documents or communications Trump may have had about the DOJ or the 2020 election, sent through Signal or other means. No timeline was given in the broad demand.

3. Communications on state certifications

Messages sent between Sept. 1, 2020, and Jan. 20, 2021, about plans to impede upon state certifications of elections or efforts to prop up an alternative elector scheme must be sent to the committee.

4. Efforts to summon people to Washington

Investigators want Trump to hand over communications that entail "efforts to encourage or summon individuals to travel" to Washington, D.C., on the day of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. They gave a time frame of Nov. 3, 2020, to Jan. 6, 2021.

5. Documents about losing lawsuits

The committee is demanding all documents and communications between Nov. 3, 2020, and Jan. 6, 2021, that "in any way" discuss losing lawsuits about the 2020 election.

6. Messages with key supporters

In one of their demands, panelists name-dropped a slew of Trump supporters who have been key figures of interest in its sprawling investigation. The panel wants any communications Trump had between Nov. 3, 2020, to Jan. 20, 2021, that involved Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, Boris Epshteyn, Christina Bobb, Cleta Mitchell, or Patrick Byrne.

7. Information on communication devices

Likely to ensure it has a full grasp of Trump's communication tactics, the panel is demanding information "sufficient to identify every telephone or other communication device" that the former president utilized between Nov. 3, 2020, to Jan. 20, 2021.

So far, Trump has been tight-lipped about whether he will comply with the Jan. 6 committee's comprehensive request. He has hired Dhillon Law Group to help handle the squabble with the panel, Politico reported. The firm has represented others, such as Michael Flynn and Sebastian Gorka, who have found themselves in the committee's crosshairs.

The panel has cited historical precedents in which presidents have complied with congressional demands and indicated it believes it would prevail against a legal challenge. Trump has ripped the panel, blasting it for unfairness.

“The double standard of the Unselects between what has taken place on the ‘Right,’ and what has taken place with [the] radical Left, lawless groups such as antifa, Black Lives Matter, and others, is startling and will never be acceptable, even to those who will be writing the history of what you have done to America,” Trump wrote in a lengthy statement following news of the plans to subpoena him.

You can read the full subpoena below: