The collection of congressional leaders known as the “Gang of Eight” have finally been given access to the classified documents that were found at the private offices and residences of President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Access to the documents follows roughly two months of resistance by the U.S. Justice Department, which claimed it would work to provide congressional leaders with access but “without harming the ongoing Special Counsel investigations” into Trump, CBS News reported.
Some lawmakers, however, had been asking for a briefing on the documents ever since the revelation that some were in Trump’s possession at his Mar-a-Lago residence last August.
The FBI subsequently raided the former president’s home, prompting some lawmakers and FBI veterans to allege that the Justice Department has been politicized, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
“It should have never taken six months for us to start being able to do our duty as congressional oversight of the intelligence community,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA), according to NBC News.
Warner and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL) have been lobbying for access to the documents for some time, arguing that they needed access to the material to inform their oversight of the intelligence community. Access was finally granted last week when the Gang of Eight was provided with the first batch of materials, Axios reported.
The Gang of Eight typically consists of the eight individuals in Congress who are authorized to receive classified intelligence briefings. This includes the chairman and vice chairman of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, as well as the top two leaders in each congressional chamber.
In addition to Warner and Rubio, the Gang of Eight includes Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
