The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday requested a 'damage assessment' after 10 classified documents were found in President Joe Biden's former office at a Washington think tank in early November.
Rep. Mike Turner sent a letter to the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines asking for an immediate review after Biden 'removed, and then retained highly classified information at an undisclosed and unsecure non-government office in Washington, D.C., for a period of at least six years.'
'This discovery of classified information would put President Biden in potential violation of laws protecting national security, including the Espionage Act and Presidential Records Act,' Turner said.
'Those entrusted with access to classified information have a duty and an obligation to protect it,' he added. 'This issue demands a full and thorough review.'
The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Turner (left) requested a 'damage assessment' after 10 classified documents were found in President Joe Biden's (right) former office at a Washington think tank in early November
The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Turner, wrote a letter Tuesday to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines
The 10 documents were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C. on November 2 - six days before the midterm elections
Turner also asked Haines for a classified briefing for committee members on the conduct of the damage assessment.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that he also wants to be briefed.
The White House announced Monday that Biden's lawyers found 10 classified documents from his vice presidential days at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington on November 2 - six days before the midterms.
Republicans are now furious that the information was withheld until after the elections - as the party didn't perform as well as expected.
In 2016, then FBI Director James Comey notified Congress 11 days before the presidential election that the agency had reopened the investigation into Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's emails - looking for classified information.
The emails were found by the FBI on a computer that belonged to former Rep. Anthony Weiner, for his unrelated sexting case, as his then wife, Huma Abedin, was a top Clinton aide.
Despite the FBI publicizing that the Clinton case was closed again before election day, Democrats believed Comey's announcement had a detrimental effect on the presidential election, which Republican Donald Trump won.
For months, former President Trump has been embroiled in his own classified documents scandal, with the FBI raiding Mar-a-Lago in August to get back some of the papers he took from the White House.
In late August, Haines confirmed to the top Democrats on the House Intelligence and House Oversight Committees that the intelligence community was conducting a damage assessment into the documents Trump took - including those found at his Florida home and club.
It's likely, then, that Haines will have to agree to do a damage assessment of the Biden documents as well.
Republicans are already comparing the two cases with incoming House Oversight Committee Chair, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky commenting Tuesday: 'I'm wondering is Joe Biden's personal residence gonna be raided by the FBI.'
Biden allies, however, are pointing out that the president's lawyer turned the documents over to the Justice Department upon finding them, whereas Trump and his legal team tried retaining his files.
House Democratic Whip Rep. Pete Aguilar accused Republicans of 'hypocrisy' as Biden followed the 'established process' in turning over the documents as soon as they were found.
'The president is handling this the way that he should,' Aguilar said.
Biden has said he didn't know the documents were there.
English (United States) ·