WASHINGTON — The Justice Department told the Senate Intelligence Committee it was “actively working” to advise lawmakers of potential national security risks after the discovery of classified documents in the possession of President Joe Biden and the former President Donald Trump, according to a letter shared by a source familiar with the matter.
In the letter, which was sent on Saturday to the senses. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the committee’s chairman and vice-chairman, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote, “We are working with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to support the provision of information that will satisfy the committee’s responsibilities without prejudice to the ongoing investigations of the special counsel.
“Although one of the special advocates was not appointed until January 12, prosecutors on both issues are actively working to allow information to be shared with the committee,” Uriarte added, referring to the two appointed special advocates. to oversee separate investigations into the Biden and Trump documents. case.
CBS News first reported the letter.
Warner and Rubio demanded a damage assessment, along with details of the substance of the documents, after the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Senators from both parties expressed frustration after leaving a closed-door briefing last week with Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, who refused to show them copies of classified documents discovered at Trump’s Florida resort and at Biden’s office and home in Delaware.
Haines also declined to discuss the sensitive material, citing ongoing investigations by a special counsel, according to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who attended the classified briefing.
During a joint appearance Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Warner and Rubio called for an immediate scrutiny of the documents.
“We are united in that we have to find a way to do our job. That means we need those documents,” Warner said. “We’re not interested in the timeline, the ticking, the who-has-what, who-did-that.”
The Justice Department this month told Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, that it was unable to share information about “ongoing investigations,” which include the doubles special counsel investigations into the handling of classified documents. Jordan announced this month that the committee had opened an investigation into classified Obama-era documents found in Biden’s possession.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com