Intel chief stonewalls Congress on Biden and Trump documents
Byron York
INTEL CHIEF STONEWALLS CONGRESS ON BIDEN AND TRUMP DOCUMENTS. What is the most important similarity of the Joe Biden and Donald Trump classified documents investigations? Of course, there is the simple fact that both men, the current and former presidents, are accused of mishandling classified information. But just as critical, from the public’s perspective, is this: We don’t know what that information was. We don’t know if the classified material each allegedly mishandled involved the nation’s most sensitive and carefully guarded secrets, secrets that would do grave damage to national security if revealed, or whether it was minor stuff that should never have been classified in the first place.
That’s the single most important factor in assessing the seriousness of each case — and we have no idea what to think. Who is “we?” Certainly the general public has no idea. But the group of people in the dark about the documents includes members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, too.
Remember that this newsletter wrote recently that the intelligence community has never delivered the so-called damage assessment from the Trump documents case that lawmakers demanded. It’s been months, and the IC will not tell Congress how much, if any, damage to national security the Trump documents case posed.
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On Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines met with the Senate Intelligence Committee. The purpose was to update them on both the Trump and the Biden cases. Keep in mind that members of the committee have the highest security clearances, and the top Democrat and Republican on the committee are members of the so-called Gang of Eight, which receives briefings on the nation’s most sensitive intelligence.
But in this case, Haines refused to show the senators any of the classified documents in either the Biden or Trump cases. Haines also refused to discuss the nature of the material. Haines told the group she could not discuss any of the material until she gets the OK from the special counsels investigating the Biden and Trump cases. (In the Biden case, the special counsel, Robert Hur, has not even begun work yet.)
It’s a crazy situation. These Justice Department investigations, including the infamous FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, have roiled American politics and put a president and former president in the sights of prosecutors. And nobody knows what the cases are about. Members of the Senate committee were unhappy with Haines’s performance, to say the least. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the chairman, said members were “unanimous” in saying the IC’s stonewall “is not going to stand.” Warner added that eventually “all things will be on the table” to force Haines to give the Senate what it wants.
So what is “on the table”? The Senate has the responsibility of confirming the president’s nominees to the executive branch and to the courts. Congress has the power to authorize the spending of money. Those are two areas in which senators can make life very difficult for the Biden administration. One member of the Intelligence Committee, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), was blunt about both. “Whether it’s blocking nominees or withholding budgetary funds, Congress will impose pain on the administration until they provide these documents,” Cotton said after the meeting with Haines. “And that is coming from both parties.”
In a text exchange Thursday morning, Cotton laid out the reasons he will push the intelligence community to keep Congress informed on both the Biden and Trump cases. “Congress has an especially critical oversight responsibility of intelligence activities, which happen out of the public eye, unlike most government activities,” Cotton said. “The intelligence committees have an absolute right to review these documents to assess what damage, if any, might have occurred to national security. That oversight responsibility is distinct from and has little bearing on any criminal investigation of these documents and their handling.”
Cotton did not buy Haines’s excuse that she could not discuss the material because of the special counsel investigations. Such investigations, he noted, have not stopped the intelligence committees of both Senate and House in the past. For example, his committee reviewed “highly sensitive documents” related to the Trump-Russia investigation at the same time special counsel Robert Mueller was on the job.
The point of it all is that Congress has to know what the intelligence community and the Justice Department are doing. Lawmakers have the authority to oversee both, and they have a right to know what is happening. They have that authority, of course, because they were granted it by the voters. But right now, everyone is in the dark, which is particularly harmful since there has been so much wild media speculation going on. “We really have no idea,” said Cotton, “whether the documents are basically harmless historic curiosities or extremely sensitive with a high risk of damage.”
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