House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) panned the Justice Department for being “disingenuous” on the presidential document scandal.
Turner, one of eight lawmakers cleared for the highest level of congressional classified briefings, accused the DOJ of not being forthcoming about the sensitive material that was unearthed from former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden, and former Vice President Mike Pence.
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“No,” Turner replied when asked on CBS’s Face the Nation if he was content with the DOJ’s response. “The Department of Justice has not been forthcoming in this, and they’ve been somewhat disingenuous. And certainly both the House and Senate are gonna have to address this one.”
Turner is a member of the so-called “Gang of Eight,” a group that is comprised of the chairman and vice chairman of both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, as well as the top four leaders in both chambers. They have the highest congressional clearance for classified information.
Last week, reports emerged that the DOJ agreed to grant the group access to the stash of classified material recovered from Trump, Biden, and Pence. Members have lobbied the department for months, and some even dangled the prospect of using subpoena power.
“The documents that were delivered to Congress are not complete, and secondly, they don’t identify whose documents they were, whether they came from the trove of Biden’s behind the Corvette or whether or not they came from our Mar-a-Lago,” Turned said.
“To deliver those documents without even designating whose documents they were clearly shows an unwillingness to be working closely with Congress,” he added. “They promised them to us, and they need to work with us so that we can get an assessment of what happened here. There are laws that need to be changed.”
DOJ has tapped special counsel Jack Smith to investigate the Trump classified document debacle, in which some 300 sensitive documents were uncovered. It also tasked special counsel Robert Hur with investigating the situation surrounding Biden.
Prosecutors are reportedly examining possible obstruction of justice in the Trump case. Trump has maintained his innocence and ripped the review as a “witch hunt.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL) asked the DOJ to conduct a damage assessment of the situation.
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Turner also countered reports suggesting Trump may have possessed the nuclear codes, but indicated he saw the index and did not directly see all the files yet.
“I can tell you this, in the reviews that we’ve had so far — indexes that do include the documents — there’s no nuclear codes here. No one had anything that was an extreme, imminent threat to the United States,” he added.
