Donald Trump’s lawyers sent a letter to Congress alleging that the Justice Department had misled the courts and the public on how classified marked memos ended up in Mar-a-Lago and asking the legislative body to intervene in the dispute, as per Just the News. The letter, addressed to Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) of the House Permanent Selection Committee on Intelligence, claims that “It has become abundantly clear through this investigation that the institutional practice and procedures within the White House for the handling of classified materials drastically differ from the long-established standard operating procedures employed by various agencies of the intelligence community as well as the U.S. military.”
The letter by Trump’s legal team also revealed that “Despite our requests to DOJ, it has refused to tell us whether in its judgment any of the documents remain classified. Similarly, DOJ has refused to allow for inspection of the documents at any time during the last eight months despite the fact that one of our attorneys has sufficient clearance to view the majority of the documents marked as classified.” In other words, it is not exactly clear whether any of the documents found in Mar-a-Lago were in fact classified when they were taken there.
The letter lists allegations that there was an irregular lack of assistance provided by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to the Trump transition team in packing up the materials to Mar-a-Lago. It also posits that Trump went to great lengths to cooperate with NARA over the disputed materials and that the Department of Justice under Biden inappropriately “sought to criminalize a civil matter” in an unprecedented and irregular fashion (as it did not go against former Vice President Pence for the same alleged offense or against Biden).
The letter suggested that Mr. Turner “hold hearings and make legislative changes to: 1. Correct classified document handling procedures in the White House. 2. Standardize document handling and storage procedures for Presidents and Vice Presidents when they leave office; and 3. Formalize procedures for investigations into the mishandling or spillage of classified material, to prevent future situations where DOJ is inappropriately assigned to conduct an investigation.”
Chairman Turner responded to the concerns listed in the letter in an interview on Fox News. He commented that “We have been very concerned about the disparate treatment between the Trump administration, as they’ve departed, and the Department of Justice and the Biden administration with the past documents that he had from his time at Senate and also as vice president. Both currently have special prosecutors, and I think people frequently miss [that fact]. The Biden administration – President Biden himself – has a special prosecutor looking at the criminal aspects of his misuse of classified documents.”
He mentioned that “But our committee has already been looking at this issue on the misuse of classified documents. We had the archivists into our committee to testify, and they actually testified that every administration since Reagan has delivered to them boxes of a mixture of classified and declassified documents – unclassified documents – that were mixed together.”
He further indicated that he was sympathetic to the demand for congressional reforms by saying “We’re looking at how do we change the laws, how do we change the rules, and how do we address this so it doesn’t affect future administrations and it certainly shouldn’t affect these two.”
The Ohio Republican summarized the interview in a tweet reading, “@HouseIntel is already looking into the mishandling of classified material. @USNatArchives told us that every administration since Reagan has mishandled classified material. Today, I told @MariaBartiromo that our committee is looking at how to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
.@HouseIntel is already looking into the mishandling of classified material.@USNatArchives told us that every administration since Reagan has mishandled classified material.
Today, I told @MariaBartiromo that our committee is looking at how to ensure this doesn’t happen again. pic.twitter.com/pAumSbmTtG
— US Rep. Mike Turner (@RepMikeTurner) April 27, 2023
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DC Enquirer
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