Congress gets access to Biden, Trump and Pence's classified docs

‘s administration has given some members of Congress access to the classified documents found at the homes of , Joe Biden and Mike Pence, according to a new report out on Tuesday.

The ‘Gang of Eight’ began getting access to the documents last week, Punchbowl News reported, in a majority victory for the legislative branch.

The Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith was appointed to Mar-a-Lago, arguing it was protecting its investigation.

Later Robert Hur was appointed special counsel to investigate the documents found in Biden’s Wilmington home, which date back to his time as vice president.

But lawmakers who have oversight on intelligence matters pushed back, arguing they are investigating the safeguarding of America’s secrets and assessing the impact of the documents’ potential disclosure. 

Now a select group of lawmakers with access to the nation’s highest security secrets will get to see the documents found in possession of Trump, Biden and Pence. 

The ‘Gang of Eight’ consists of the leaders of each of the two parties from both the Senate and House of Representatives — Democrat Chuck Schumer, Republican Mitch McConnell, Republican Kevin McCarthy and Democrat Hakeem Jeffries.

It also consists of the chairs and ranking minority members of both the Senate and House intelligence committees — Democrat Mark Warner, Republican Marco Rubio, Republican Mike Turner and Democrat Jim Himes.

Warner and Rubio led the pressure campaign to get President Biden’s administration to give access to the materials to lawmakers and staff.

Federal law requires all presidential records — and especially those with classified markings — to be turned over to the National Archives at the end of a presidential administration.

Both Trump and Biden are facing federal probes for having classified documents in their private homes.

Pence also found some classified documents at his Indiana home in February.He immediately notified authorities and allowed federal agents to search his home.  

On Nov.2nd, Biden’s personal attorney discovered approximately 10 documents with classified markings on Nov. 2 at the Penn Biden Center, his private think tank run by the University of Pennsylvania.

The material dated back to the Obama administration. The National Archives and Justice Department were informed of the discovery.  

But the crisis did not come to public attention until January after CBS News reported their existence, earning criticism for the Biden administration, which has promised transparency.

Days later more classified documents were discovered at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, residence.Additional searches found more classified records — about two dozen total.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took a public beating for saying on multiple occasions the search for documents was over only to have to reveal additional searches found additional documents. 

The lack of disclosures, the misstatements, and Biden own testiness when asked about the issue contributed to the impression the White House had not been forthcoming on the matter.

Administration officials countered that the Archives and other federal agencies were notified immediately.

Meanwhile, Justice Department investigators have constructed a timeline of Trump’s case and the actions they believe the former president took:

• May 2021: National Archives realizes some records from Trump’s presidency are missing
• December 2021: Archives requests the documents from the former president
• January 2022:  Archives received 15 boxes of material that had been stored at Mar-a-Lago, some of which were found to contain classified material
• February 2022: The matter is referred to the Justice Department
• May 2022: After several back-and-forths with Trump’s legal team, the Justice Department issues a subpoena for additional records they believe to be in the former president’s Florida home
• Investigators believe after that subpoena arrived, storage boxes, including some containing classified material, were moved from a Mar-a-Lago storage area, so Trump personally examined some of them
• June 2023: Three FBI agents and one DOJ attorney go to Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the additional material. They were given a single Redweld envelope, double-wrapped in tape, containing the documents, according to later court filings. That envelope contained 38 records with classification markings, including five papers marked confidential, 16 marked secret and 17 marked top secret.
• August 2023: DOJ applied for a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, citing ‘probable cause’ that additional presidential records and records containing classified information remained at Trump’s Florida home. Court papers show that the original search warrant application showed agents believed that ‘evidence of obstruction will be found at the premises.’
• August 8, 2023: FBI agents raid Mar-a-Lago: They recover 18 documents marked as top secret, 54 marked secret, 31 marked as confidential, and 11,179 government documents or photographs that had no classification markings.

Trump has criticized the federal investigation of the classified documents found in his possession.

At Mar-a-Lago last week, when he was defending himself against his indictment in New York tied to a hush-money payment to a porn star, the former president launched into a long, detailed defense on why he thinks he committed no crime by having his White House records at his Florida home. 

The Presidential Records Act says all material from a presidential administration is the property of the federal government and must be turned over to the National Archives. 

‘There is no criminality under the Presidential Records Act,’ Trump said. 

‘That is not what it’s all about.We were negotiating in very good faith, a proper way in order to return some or all of the documents that I openly, and in very plain sight, brought with me to Mar-a-Lago from our beautiful White House just as virtually every other president has done in the past.’

He condemned the August raid that revealed he had more documents on hand, despite a subpoena from the Justice Department to return all the material he had with him at his Florida home.

‘As President I have the right to declassify documents and the process is automatic.If I take them with me, it’s automatic. Declassified,’ Trump claimed, which is false.