Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) is dissatisfied with the FBI's disclosure of information relating to the classified documents found at former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden's homes.
"One of the things we know is that the FBI is not being forthcoming," Turner said on NBC News' Meet the Press. "They're not giving us the information. They're claiming that it's going to affect the outcome of their investigation, which of course, it can't because the people who are the targets of their investigation know what are in those documents, and we have the clearance and the ability to look at these documents."
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Turner, who is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he did not receive information on the nature of the documents found in Trump, Biden, and former Vice President Mike Pence's possession. A briefing on the documents was held the week of Feb. 5.
Trump's documents were discovered in a raid on his home in Mar-a-Lago in August 2022. Classified documents were then found in Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center in November of last year, but their existence was not revealed until after the new year. Since then, more documents were also found in Biden's Delaware home. The documents found in Pence’s home were discovered on Jan. 18.
"We also know from Avril Haines that she said that she was not consulted prior to the raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago home that, in fact, it was not a national security basis," Turner said of Haines, the director of national intelligence.
Senior officials close to the investigation detailed the FBI's hesitation to conduct a surprise raid on Trump's home, with the Justice Department arguing that aggressive tactics were needed as it was a breach of national security. FBI field agents had argued the plan was too combative and worried about the political blowback from such a high-profile situation.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is seeking ways to compel the Biden administration to share information relating to the documents, saying there have been weeks of stonewalling.
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Overall, Turner said the lack of accountability with classified documents in the president's possession is a problem for administrations on both sides of the aisle.
"It's unbelievable that administration after administration is apparently sloppy and messy in their use of classified documents, and that's one thing on a bipartisan basis we have to address well beyond this," he said. "This has to change where classified documents are under a certain amount of control."