Lawmakers Want Damage Assessment After ‘Highly Classified’ Documents Found at Trump’s House – By Kirsten Errick (Defense One) / Aug 16, 2022
House committee chairs ask intel-community chief how badly national security could be hurt by the information in the recovered documents
House Committee Chairs Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines seeking an immediate review and assessment of damages following reports of the FBI’s seizure of “highly classified” documents that former President Donald Trump “removed and retained” at his personal residence at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, claiming the former president’s conduct has “potentially put our national security at grave risk.”
The chairs of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence asked that Haines request the national counterintelligence executive along with the inspector general of the Intelligence Community and other inspectors general as necessary to conduct a damage assessment on the obtained materials. Maloney and Schiff also requested a classified briefing on the national security assessment as soon as possible.
“Those entrusted with access to classified information have a duty and an obligation to protect it,” the lawmakers said. “Yet, a recently unsealed court-authorized search warrant and the inventory of property recovered at the Mar-a-Lago Club describe numerous classified documents held by former President Trump.”
