Congressional leaders gain access to classified documents from homes of Trump, Biden, Pence
Congressional leaders in the House and Senate have been given access to the classified documents recovered from the homes of former president Donald Trump, President Biden and former vice president Mike Pence, according to two people familiar with the information who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic.
The classified documents were shared last week with the so-called Gang of Eight - a bipartisan group of congressional leaders who typically receive briefings on classified intelligence - and comes after months of pressure on the Biden administration from Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the chair and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Punchbowl News first reported the news Tuesday morning.
The FBI removed a trove of more than 100 classified documents during a search last August of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Over the course of several months in the winter, several classified documents were also found in Biden’s home in Delaware. In January, the FBI retrieved several classified documents from Pence’s home.
Warner and Rubio have been critical of the Justice Department for not giving Congress access to the classified documents earlier, arguing that the department’s refusal was hampering the Senate committee’s responsibility to conduct oversight of the intelligence community.
In February, Warner and Rubio met with Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to discuss the documents, a briefing they described as unsatisfactory afterward.
“While today’s meeting helped shed some light on these issues, it left much to be desired and we will continue to press for full answers to our questions in accordance with our constitutional oversight obligations,” the senators said in a joint statement in February.
The “Gang of Eight” includes House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Warner and Rubio. Turner and Himes are the chair and ranking member of the House intelligence committee.