Republicans who days ago united in preemptive defense of Donald Trump are struggling to stay on the same page following new questions about documents that the former president was holding at his Florida residence. The FBI’s daylong search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate this week, personally approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland, sparked near-universal GOP outrage and allegations of a politicized Justice Department. In the wake of reports that the search was tied to concerns Trump may have improperly taken highly classified White House documents related to nuclear weapons and so-called special access operations, however, Republicans are politically diverging. While some GOP lawmakers acknowledged Friday that a scenario in which Trump withheld nuclear-related documents would be problematic, House Republican leaders are still rallying behind him and suggesting without evidence that President Joe Biden sought to weaponize DOJ against a political rival.
But other GOP national security hawks were notably more restrained. As new information emerged about the circumstances behind the FBI search — with still more expected later Friday after Garland moved to unseal related documents — the contrast grew starker between Republicans advancing a knee-jerk defense of the former president and those who are simply calling for additional disclosures from DOJ. Among the senior Republicans acknowledging that it’s possible the presence of highly classified information at Mar-a-Lago would be a genuine national security concern was Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.
Some Republicans are leaving open the possibility that Trump acted inappropriately. In an interview, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), an Intelligence Committee member, said it was important for the panel to glean additional information and acknowledged that mishandling of sensitive classified information would be a serious violation. “I mean, if he had actual Special Access Programs — do you know how extraordinarily sensitive that is? That’s very, very sensitive. If that were actually at his residence, that would be a problem,” Stewart said. “But we just don’t know that. So let’s find out.” “When you get to compartmentalized classified spaces, it gets more serious,” added Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a centrist and former FBI agent, encouraged his GOP colleagues to “be responsible and measured right now” in how they’re responding to the Mar-a-Lago search.
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats remained circumspect. Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not yet commit to any congressional investigations, saying she had no more information than was publicly available. But she added that “if the nature of these documents is what it appears to be, this is very serious,” seemingly referring to reports that the documents were linked to nuclear information. “There are laws against the improper handling of this material. There are laws against that. We have to recognize that.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/1 ... e-00051418
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