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Mark Warner, Marco Rubio Renew Bipartisan Demand for DOJ’s ‘Immediate Compliance’ with Classified Documents

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Senate Intelligence Committee chair Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and ranking member Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) are demanding “immediate compliance” from the Justice Department and director of national intelligence after neither complied with prior requests from the senators for a review of how recent document discoveries may have threatened national security.

The senators stated in a letter sent Thursday and published by CBS that they not only wanted information they were still awaiting about documents with classified markings found at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and the Penn Biden Center, but that they were expanding their request to include documents found at the homes of President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence.

“Our request is not unprecedented. In other investigations involving the mishandling of classified information the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence have accommodated the legitimate oversight needs of this Committee without detriment to any ongoing investigation,” the senators wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

The letter is a sign of Warner and Rubio’s increased frustration with both the Justice Department and Haines, who are now facing accusations of stonewalling the senators.

The department’s last communication to the pair, sent January 28 and published by Fox, indicated the department was “working” in coordination with Haines to satisfy the Senate committee’s needs but that it was attempting to do so “without harming the ongoing Special Counsel investigations.”

Haines, for her part, met with Warner, Rubio, and others in a closed-door briefing last week, and Rubio emerged dissatisfied, according to NBC.

“The bottom line is this: They won’t tell us what they have until the special counsel allows them to tell us. That’s an unacceptable position,” Rubio said, per the outlet.

In their letter Thursday, Rubio and Warner asked that Garland and Haines meet their demands promptly.

“As we expressed previously, in light of the substantial public interest, the need for bipartisan and responsible oversight of these matters is at its highest. We urge your immediate compliance with our previous requests,” they wrote. “These matters are the highest priority of the Committee and our oversight and authorization efforts will align accordingly.”

In a recent Face the Nation interview, Rubio alluded to the committee holding up funding for the intelligence community should the committee’s needs not be met.

“I’m not in the threat business right now, but there are things we need to do as a committee every year to authorize the moving around of funds. I think the director of national intelligence and other heads of intelligence agencies are aware of that,” Rubio said.

Write to Ashley Oliver at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.

Report: FBI Expected to Search Mike Pence’s Indiana Home for Classified Material

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is expected to search the Indiana home of former Vice President Mike Pence in the coming days, according to people familiar with the plans, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Justice Department is discussing a time to schedule the search with the former vice president’s legal team, the same people told the WSJ. The search comes after law enforcement agencies have recently increased scrutiny of how government officials handle classified material.

This also comes after Pence voluntarily provided classified documents to federal authorities that he discovered at his Indiana home last month. As the WSJ noted, Pence’s lawyers said the discovered documents were “inadvertently packed up and transported and Mr. Pence was unaware of their existence.”

This statement ropes him into the same scandal simmering around President Joe Biden after multiple reports showed that between 2o-25 documents were found in Biden’s vice-presidential office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C., and other places such as his home in Delaware. Since the discovery of the documents, federal authorities searched Biden’s two homes in Delaware in recent weeks.

The document disclosures from Pence and Biden came as former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, Mar-A-Lago, was raided by FBI agents last summer. The FBI searched his residence for classified material that the former president could have removed from the White House when he moved out. The search reportedly included agents going through Melania Trump’s bedroom and closets. Following the raid, some of the seized materials the FBI took included over 50 empty folders.

A person close to Pence indicated to the WSJ that the search by the former vice president’s legal team was “exhaustive,” and they do not believe there are any more classified documents at his home.

Additionally, Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle exclusively reported on Thursday that a CNN camera crew was pictured on the street outside Pence’s advocacy group headquarters in downtown Washington, DC.

Boyle noted that the pictures obtained by Breitbart News “suggest the camera crew was possibly awaiting action from the Department of Justice (DOJ) or FBI in the ongoing classified document scandals plaguing Pence, former President Donald Trump, and current President Joe Biden.”

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.

Exclusive — CNN Camera Crew Present Outside Mike Pence Group in D.C. After Apparent Leak from DOJ

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A CNN camera crew was as of Thursday morning present on the street outside former Vice President Mike Pence’s advocacy group headquarters in downtown Washington, DC, Breitbart News has learned.

The group is called Advancing American Freedom and has headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C.

Photos of the CNN staffers—who had a camera on a tripod there—provided to Breitbart News suggest the camera crew was possibly awaiting action from the Department of Justice (DOJ) or FBI in the ongoing classified document scandals plaguing Pence, former President Donald Trump, and current President Joe Biden.

CNN and the DOJ have not replied to requests for comment.

Pence officials have previously made clear that staff-led searches have been conducted both at Pence’s home in Indiana and at this organization’s headquarters and that there are no other possible locations to search.

The presence of the CNN camera crew raises questions about whether or not the DOJ or FBI are leaking to establishment media any key facts or intelligence about the various investigations. At this stage, there is no reason to believe that any intelligence that CNN may have gotten is correct or incorrect either, and Pence’s office has not been raided or searched yet by federal agents—and it is unclear if it ever will be.

Pence voluntarily provided classified documents he discovered at his Indiana home recently to federal authorities, which somewhat roped him into the simmering scandal currently ripping Biden apart. Federal authorities searched Biden’s two homes in Delaware in recent weeks, and have been zoning in on troves of documents at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Delaware as well from his time as Vice President during former President Barack Obama’s administration and from his time as a U.S. Senator.

A source close to Pence said that the former vice president and his team will comply with the various authorities and have been in touch with the FBI about the possibility of scheduling additional searches.

Trump, meanwhile, saw his home at Mar-a-Lago raided back in August as part of that probe, which now is being overseen by a Special Counsel—a Special Counsel has also been appointed in the Biden case too.

Questions of leaks to media about flashy law enforcement action like executions of search warrants or even just voluntary searches have dominated each of these stories for weeks. It is unclear if the DOJ or FBI will take any action against leakers in their midst, or if the Department and Agency believe that such leaks are acceptable.

It is also unclear if the CNN news crew is still remaining outside Pence’s organization.

Carefully worded statement reveals FBI seized more documents from Biden property, this time his vacation home

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The search lasted approximately three and a half hours, according to Bauer. Though FBI agents discovered no classified documents, they seized materials dated from Biden’s tenure as vice president.

“The DOJ’s planned search of the President’s Rehoboth residences, conducted in coordination and cooperation with the President’s attorneys, has concluded,” Bauer said. “The search was conducted from 8:30 AM to noon.

“No documents with classified markings were found,” he added. “Consistent with the process in Wilmington, the DOJ took for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as Vice President.”

The carefully worded statement, emphasizing that agents found nothing with classified markings, does not exclude the possibility that what agents seized was classified. Indeed, not every document or parcel with classified information, such as handwritten notes, carry the proper markings indicating that it contains classified information.

What is the background?

The search is at least the third time the DOJ has searched one of Biden’s properties.

Last month, the Justice Department searched Biden’s private residence in Wilmington, Delaware, turning up additional classified documents. At the time, it was believed to have been the first search.

But CBS News reported on Tuesday that FBI agents conducted a search of the Washington office where classified documents were first discovered on Nov. 2. That search was conducted sometime in “mid-November.” It’s not clear if the FBI found classified documents in that search.

It’s also unclear why the Biden administration and Justice Department refused to previously disclose the search.

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Top Biden official unable to spin her way out of contradiction exposed by CNN host on classified docs scandal

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What happened on CNN?

After White House communications director Kate Bedingfield claimed the White House has been “transparent from the onset,” Blackwell had just one question: How can you be transparent if you aren’t forthcoming with basic details?

“You are claiming transparency, but I am bringing this to you, you aren’t bringing it to me,” he said. “This happened in mid-November. If you are, indeed, being transparent, why the continued trickle of disclosure around these classified documents?”

Unfortunately, Bedingfield completely ignored the question. Instead, she emphasized Biden’s cooperation with the Justice Department.

“We have released multiple statements from the White House, and President Biden’s personal attorney has released multiple statements over the last month, walking through the process and agreeing to be fully, fully cooperative with the Justice Department,” she responded. “This is a process that plays out.

“We have been clear from the outset that the president will cooperate with every request the Justice Department has and we put out multiple statements describing that process,” she added.

What about the search?

According to CBS News, the FBI searched Biden’s private office, the one he used before becoming president, sometime in “mid-November” after the initial Nov. 2 discovery.

It’s not clear what the FBI found — if agents found additional classified documents — and it’s not clear which exact day the FBI conducted its search, whether it was before or after the Nov. 8 midterm election.

The refusal to disclose the search is odd. When the Justice Department searched Biden’s private residence in Wilmington, Delaware, last month, the search was announced the next day. Moreover, Biden’s personal attorney announced Wednesday that the FBI was searching Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, the same day of the search.

The refusal to disclose basic timeline facts has led to widespread speculation of non-negligent malfeasance.

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