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Incoming House Intel chair: Congress still not briefed on 'risk assessment' behind Mar-a-Lago raid

"The director of national intelligence indicated they have conducted their risk assessment," said Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio).

Published: December 5, 2022 5:18pm

Updated: December 6, 2022 9:05am

Incoming House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Turner revealed that Congress still hasn't been briefed on the intelligence community's "risk assessment" of the allegedly classified documents that were seized during the Mar-a-Lago raid nearly 4 months ago.

"I have just talked to the director of national intelligence about this particular issue," the Ohio Republican said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "One issue that we have — I have discussed with the director, which is very, very interesting, is that, prior to the Mar-a- Lago raid, no one in the intelligence community or in the national security community was engaged at all by the FBI to request an assessment as to what the risk [was] of the documents that had been surrendered from Mar-a- Lago or that might have been at Mar-a-Lago, or that were even perceived as being missing.

"This was just the FBI and the archivist, which is basically a glorified librarian, coming together and deciding to raid Mar-a-Lago." (With a nudge from the Biden White House, National Archivist Debra Steidel Wall refused to honor Trump's claim of executive privilege over the disputed documents, clearing the way for the FBI to raid the former president's home and seize his papers.)

Turner emphasized that he's not downplaying the significance of any classified information that might have been stored at Mar-a-Lago but said the raid of former President Trump's home should have been a last resort.

"There were other options that the FBI had vs. the escalation that — that they did," he said. "That certainly is going to be one of the questions we have. The director of national intelligence indicated they have conducted their risk assessment, and they are prepared to give both of our committees on the Senate and the House presentations as to what those are."

As for when the congressional briefing on the risk assessment related to the raid will be conducted, Turner said: "At this point, it's just a scheduling issue. We just had a meeting with the director, both Senator Warner, myself, and Adam Schiff."

Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner is the current chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff is current chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Turner was asked if he agreed with Trump's recent post on his social media platform about the 2020 election that said "massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution."

"I vehemently disagree with the statement that Trump has made," Turner said in response. "Trump has made 1,000 statements in which I disagree."

Trump later referred to reports suggesting he supports overriding the Constitution as "fake news."

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