Senate Intel Committee Chair Warner Wants Briefing on Biden Documents

On Tuesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner called for his committee to receive a briefing concerning the classified documents that were revealed to have been discovered in an office that had been used by President Joe Biden after leaving the vice presidency.

"Our system of classification exists in order to protect our most important national security secrets, and we expect to be briefed on what happened both at Mar-a-Lago and at the Biden office as part of our constitutional oversight obligations," the Virginia Democrat said in his statement, reports NBC News.

However, Warner also said the matter between the discoveries in Biden's office is "certainly different" than the case at former President Donald Trump's Florida estate last summer.

"From what we know so far, the latter is about finding documents with markings, and turning them over, which is certainly different from a months'-long effort to retain material actively being sought by the government. But then again, that's why we need to be briefed," the senator said in his statement, which was posted on Twitter.

In December, Warner told NBC News that it is a "bit embarrassing" that the congressional "Gang of Eight" was never briefed about the classified documents that were seized at the Mar-a-Lago estate.

Other Democrats, though, are defending Biden after the story about the documents broke Monday night, more than two months — and one midterm election — after the documents were discovered on Nov. 2 in the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in downtown Washington, D.C., a think-tank office tied to Biden soon after he left the vice president office and before running for the White House in 2020.

In Biden's case, the attorney finding the documents contacted the National Archives and Records Administration to take custody of the documents, and other items said to include Biden's personal family papers.

"Unlike former President Donald Trump, who allegedly obstructed efforts to recover hundreds of classified documents, the handful of classified documents reportedly found at the Biden Center were immediately sent to the National Archives and President Biden is allowing the Justice Department to operate free of political interference," Durbin said. "And unlike Donald Trump's Attorney General, Bill Barr, Merrick Garland is not acting like the president’s personal lawyer."

White House lawyer Richard Sauber said Monday that the "small number of documents" with classified markings appeared to be from the Obama administration and were discovered in a locked closet by Biden's attorneys.

NBC News, quoting a source familiar with the matter, reported that Biden was only aware of the classified documents upon being told of the discovery.

Garland has asked U.S. Attorney John Lausch, a Trump appointee for the Northern District of Illinois, to review the documents.

Meanwhile, Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by the Department of Justice is investigating Trump and the documents, drawing concerns from Republicans the two cases are not being treated equally.