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On Monday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Sean Hannity to discuss the Biden classified document scandal and the Department of Justice’s stonewalling of House Republican investigations into the matter.
“Senator, so we’ve got Hunter Biden who had access to Joe’s top secret classified documents when he was staying at his house,” Hannity said. “Based on his background and his associations, I think it would be prudent to examine his home…But the Department of Justice, in a letter to Jim Jordan requesting these documents, said they would not be forthcoming because it would somehow hurt their investigation. Your reaction?”
“Well, we got a similar letter in the Intelligence Committee. It’s a bipartisan letter because it was sent by the chairman who’s a Democrat, Mark Warner, and myself,” Rubio said, adding, “their answer is that it would imperil the investigation. It’s a silly letter, it’s a ridiculous letter, and it doesn’t even answer the question that we asked. This is very straightforward.”
“We are the committee in charge of making sure our intelligence agencies are doing a good job,” he said. “Part of their job is to protect classified information from espionage and putting our country in danger. Do we know that there are letters, documents, and materials? The media seems to know more about it than Congress does…We want to know what those materials are.”
“The Justice Department possesses them but the intelligence community knows what they are and they refuse to tell us which materials they are,” the Florida senator continued during the Fox interview. “It’s not that we’re not clear. We have probably seen some of these documents and materials over the years. They won’t tell us which ones they are. So how can we know if there is a risk here, how can we know if any damage has been done, and whether the plan to mitigate that damage is sufficient? We don’t know what we are talking about. Their refusal to tell us what was exposed is not sustainable, it’s not acceptable, and I think you are going to begin to see us take action I hope and I expect on a bipartisan basis.”
WATCH: SWALWELL CLAIMS AFFAIR WITH CHINESE SPY DIDN’T COMPROMISE U.S. INTEL – ‘ABSOLUTELY NOT’
Hannity then asked about the House Republican investigations led by the Oversight Committee chaired by Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and the Judiciary Committee (R-OH). Hannity went on to explain that the DOJ will likely do everything in its power to not hand over materials to Congress and asked Rubio if there was any way that lawmakers could expedite the process to get answers.
“Listen every one of these agencies, their budgets are approved by Congress. They have to be authorized by the committees that have oversight. We have oversight over the FBI’s counterintelligence division and so it gives us an angle on the Department of Justice. And we certainly have oversight over all the agencies whose documents by the way belong to. These documents that they have in their possession do not belong to the FBI or the Department of Justice. They belong to the intelligence agencies that authorized them and they should be answering to us if they don’t then I think that we are going to have to begin to do things that we can do here in terms of not authorizing, signing off on funding in order to respond to us.”
“I’m not asking for details about their investigation, I simply want to know what their materials are,” Rubio said. “I want to know what the materials are and I want to know what the intelligence agencies have concluded is the damage that was done from those materials being taken and I want to know what plan we have to deal with that damage. That is the job of our committee and that’s what we are focused on.”
“Their refusal to tell us is unacceptable and unsustainable and there are going to be consequences,” Rubio added.
Rubio then emphasized that he could limit the moving of money, not nominate individuals to post, and not authorize bills for agencies to bring consequences if the DOJ refuses to be forthcoming.
As the House Republicans continue to launch inquiries into the FBI and DOJ to fulfill their oversight duties, the Biden-led agencies are dragging their feet to protect the president. If the bureaucracies continue to do so, Republicans should take drastic action to get answers.
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On Monday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Sean Hannity to discuss the Biden classified document scandal and the Department of Justice’s stonewalling of House Republican investigations into the matter.
“Senator, so we’ve got Hunter Biden who had access to Joe’s top secret classified documents when he was staying at his house,” Hannity said. “Based on his background and his associations, I think it would be prudent to examine his home…But the Department of Justice, in a letter to Jim Jordan requesting these documents, said they would not be forthcoming because it would somehow hurt their investigation. Your reaction?”
“Well, we got a similar letter in the Intelligence Committee. It’s a bipartisan letter because it was sent by the chairman who’s a Democrat, Mark Warner, and myself,” Rubio said, adding, “their answer is that it would imperil the investigation. It’s a silly letter, it’s a ridiculous letter, and it doesn’t even answer the question that we asked. This is very straightforward.”
“We are the committee in charge of making sure our intelligence agencies are doing a good job,” he said. “Part of their job is to protect classified information from espionage and putting our country in danger. Do we know that there are letters, documents, and materials? The media seems to know more about it than Congress does…We want to know what those materials are.”
“The Justice Department possesses them but the intelligence community knows what they are and they refuse to tell us which materials they are,” the Florida senator continued during the Fox interview. “It’s not that we’re not clear. We have probably seen some of these documents and materials over the years. They won’t tell us which ones they are. So how can we know if there is a risk here, how can we know if any damage has been done, and whether the plan to mitigate that damage is sufficient? We don’t know what we are talking about. Their refusal to tell us what was exposed is not sustainable, it’s not acceptable, and I think you are going to begin to see us take action I hope and I expect on a bipartisan basis.”
WATCH: SWALWELL CLAIMS AFFAIR WITH CHINESE SPY DIDN’T COMPROMISE U.S. INTEL – ‘ABSOLUTELY NOT’
Hannity then asked about the House Republican investigations led by the Oversight Committee chaired by Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and the Judiciary Committee (R-OH). Hannity went on to explain that the DOJ will likely do everything in its power to not hand over materials to Congress and asked Rubio if there was any way that lawmakers could expedite the process to get answers.
“Listen every one of these agencies, their budgets are approved by Congress. They have to be authorized by the committees that have oversight. We have oversight over the FBI’s counterintelligence division and so it gives us an angle on the Department of Justice. And we certainly have oversight over all the agencies whose documents by the way belong to. These documents that they have in their possession do not belong to the FBI or the Department of Justice. They belong to the intelligence agencies that authorized them and they should be answering to us if they don’t then I think that we are going to have to begin to do things that we can do here in terms of not authorizing, signing off on funding in order to respond to us.”
“I’m not asking for details about their investigation, I simply want to know what their materials are,” Rubio said. “I want to know what the materials are and I want to know what the intelligence agencies have concluded is the damage that was done from those materials being taken and I want to know what plan we have to deal with that damage. That is the job of our committee and that’s what we are focused on.”
“Their refusal to tell us is unacceptable and unsustainable and there are going to be consequences,” Rubio added.
Rubio then emphasized that he could limit the moving of money, not nominate individuals to post, and not authorize bills for agencies to bring consequences if the DOJ refuses to be forthcoming.
As the House Republicans continue to launch inquiries into the FBI and DOJ to fulfill their oversight duties, the Biden-led agencies are dragging their feet to protect the president. If the bureaucracies continue to do so, Republicans should take drastic action to get answers.
You Can Follow Sterling on Twitter Here