Rep Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on Sunday that some information from the affidavit for a warrant to search former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence should be shared with Congress, even if the document remains under seal.
The Justice Department (DOJ) has expressed concern that releasing the full document could jeopardize the ongoing investigation and witnesses.
Schiff said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he did not want Congress or anyone else interfering with the DOJ’s probe, but added he hoped information relating to national security would be shared with lawmakers.
“Whatever information is in that affidavit that bears on a danger to the national security information contained in those documents, I would hope that that would be shared with Congress, even if the affidavit is not,” he said.
The House intelligence chair added that the affidavit could explain a lot about what the DOJ knows and how it obtained that information.
“You could learn what witnesses may have seen in terms of the handling of those documents or people coming and going from where the documents were located. You could learn about whether representations were made that proved to be false, in terms of whether they had given up the classified information,” Schiff said. “You could learn a great deal. That’s just the problem, though, for the Justice Department.”
The search warrant and some related documents were unsealed last week, revealing that investigators were looking at possible criminal violations related to records kept at the former president’s residence after he left office. Eleven sets of classified documents were reportedly found at Mar-a-Lago during the search.
A federal magistrate judge has indicated he may make public a redacted version of the affidavit and ordered the DOJ to submit a redacted draft proposal for his review by Thursday.
Trump has urged the release of the unredacted document, but the DOJ has said that the affidavit should remain sealed, citing concerns that its release could compromise the integrity of its investigation.
“I think the Justice Department makes a powerful case that, at the early stage of the investigation, when it could jeopardize the pursuit of justice, this is not the time to be giving, essentially, the Trump lawyers a road map into how to intimidate witnesses or how to derail a legitimate investigation,” Schiff said.
Releasing the affidavit, which may include information about witnesses, could put sources at risk, the California lawmaker noted.
“We have seen the [former] president retaliate against anyone he considers a whistle-blower, accuse them of treason. And, of course, we have seen the president’s incendiary rhetoric already lead someone to go to an FBI building with an assault weapon who was shot to death by the FBI defending itself,” Schiff said, referring to an uptick in threats against the FBI following the Mar-a-Lago search.
“I’d like to make sure that we do our oversight of that,” Schiff said of the investigation, “but that we do it in such a way as not to jeopardize the pursuit of justice.”
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