Why so much secrecy?
Speaking to CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday (March 26), Democratic Senator Mark Warner (VA.) asserted the Department of Justice’s decision to keep information about the Classified documents President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump mishandled away from lawmakers, “does not pass the smell test.”
Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asserted that the panel “need[s] more information about these documents,” adding that the Committee needed to know what the “intel community has done to mitigate… harm.”
Trump and Biden’s respective mishandling of Classified documents are under separate investigations, each led by Special Counsels appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Warner and Republican Senator Marco Rubio (Fla.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, have asked the Biden administration to give lawmakers more information about the contents of the documents and what is being done to reduce any ramifications from their mishandling.
Last month, Warner and a bipartisan group of top Lawmakers in the upper and lower Congressional chambers had a Classified briefing on the documents — a meeting Warner suggested “left much to be desired” during Sunday’s interview.
The Virginia Democrat also doesn’t believe that divulging more detail on the classified documents would impede investigations, an assertion made by the Biden administration.
Instead, he rejected the Biden administration’s claims on Sunday, claiming it didn’t “pass the smell test,” noting that lawmakers have to “make sure that the intelligence community has done what’s right” without affecting the legal ramifications.
Last month, Warner and Rubio sent a letter to Garland requesting “immediate compliance” with their request to see the documents seized From Biden and Trump.