Congressional leaders have been stalling a "damage assessment" after classified documents were seized from Donald Trump's private resort.
The chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), have called for briefings on the fallout, which director of national intelligence Avril Haines promised to provide, but they both say "scheduling conflicts" have prevented those appraisals from happening, reported The Daily Beast.
“Trump was lying for more than a year… but he didn’t go and talk to the archives," said Gen. Michael Hayden, who led the NSA and CIA for a decade. "Biden immediately [did], and so did the vice president. It’s important to know the truth. Sooner or later, they’ve got to do that."
It's not clear which specific lawmakers hoped to stall the briefing, but the delay has kept Congress from understanding what risks to national security the documents might have posed.
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“The primary purpose is to ask, has any U.S. national security secret been compromised?" said Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA chief of staff. "Has any source or method been compromised? Did something happen to that human source in ensuing years? Did we see a drop-off in collection from that particular area? If it’s U.S. weapons information... have we seen that weapons design compromised?”
Now that Republicans hold the House majority, they have shown little interest in learning more about the documents that Trump had stashed at Mar-a-Lago.
“At the end of the day, my biggest concern isn’t the classified documents, to be honest with you,” said Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the new chair of the House Oversight Committee.