Mark Warner wants ‘more information’ about Trump and Biden classified docs
Ryan King
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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.
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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.