House Republicans are set to oversee investigations that will be launched into US President Joe Biden’s classified documents.
After President Biden was exposed for the classified documents that had been found in his two different office spaces, showing his business relationship with China, the House GOP responded immediately, vowing that they would oversee the investigation.
Early this week, Representative Mike Turner, the top member of the GOP on the House Intelligence Committee released an official statement, claiming that the intelligence community in the U.S. should conduct a “damage assessment” regarding the said documents.
On Tuesday, Turner was directly sent the request to Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence.
In the letter, Turner claimed that the fact that President Biden kept the classified documents puts him in “potential violation of laws protecting national security, including the Espionage Act and Presidential Records Act.”
Biden’s previous statement, condemning Trump for keeping hundreds of classified records at his home and calling him “irresponsible” also resurfaced with critics calling Biden a “hypocrite.”
Last Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced that it was reviewing “a small number of documents with classified markings” that Biden’s personal attorney discovered when they were clearing out offices of the Penn Biden Center.
In the letter, Turner wrote, “Those entrusted with access to classified information have a duty and an obligation to protect it. This issue demands a full and thorough review.”
Moreover, amid the controversy, Democratic Senator Mark Warner, who chairs the Senate’s Intelligence Committee, released a statement, claiming that they needed to be briefed about the documents.
“Our system of classification exists in order to protect our most important national security secrets, and we expect to be briefed on what happened both at Mar-a-Lago and at the Biden office as part of our constitutional oversight obligations.” Warner said.
“From what we know so far, the latter is about finding documents with markings, and turning them over, which is certainly different from a months-long effort to retain material actively being sought by the government. But, again, that’s why we need to be briefed,” the Democrat added in the statement.
