Rep. Adam Schiff.Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
House Democrats want to know about any “actual or potential damage” to U.S. national security after the FBI discoveredboxes containing classified materialsduring alawful searchofDonald Trump’sMar-a-Lago homelast week.
Rep.Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Rep.Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, wrote a letter to National Intelligence Director Avril Haines Saturday requesting an immediate review and damage assessment as well as an “appropriate classified briefing” on the findings “as soon as possible,“The Washington Postreports.
The lawmakers cited reports “that former President Trump removed and retained highly classified information at his personal residence” in Palm Beach, Fla., in what could amount to “potential violation of the Presidential Records Act and laws protecting national security, including the Espionage Act.”
“Trump’s conduct has potentially put our national security at grave risk,” Schiff and Maloney wrote to Haines. “This issue demands a full review, in addition to the ongoing law enforcement inquiry.”
Carolyn Maloney.Gary Gershoff/Getty
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Anunsealed warrant and receiptfrom the Aug. 8 search show that FBI agents recovered 11 sets of classified documents categorized as at various levels of sensitivity, the letter points out, from “confidential” to “top secret” to “TS/SCI,” one of the highest levels of classification of government secrets.
Schiff and Maloney also referred to aPostreportpublished before the search warrant and associated receipt were unsealed that said investigators were looking fordocuments related to nuclear weapons, which the lawmakers said are “among our nation’s most closely guarded secrets.”
“If this report is true, it is hard to overstate the national security danger that could emanate from the reckless decision to remove and retain this material,” they wrote.
source: people.com
