Biden ignored shouted questions on the matter Tuesday during a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Mexico.
Turner’s request got here a day after the White House confirmed that the Department of Justice was reviewing “a small variety of documents with classified markings.” The documents were discovered as Biden’s personal attorneys were clearing out the offices of the Penn Biden Center, where the president kept an office after he left the vice presidency in 2017 until shortly before he launched his presidential campaign in 2019, the White House said.
“Those entrusted with access to classified information have an obligation and an obligation to guard it,” said Turner in a letter to Haines. “This issue demands a full and thorough review.”
Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for a briefing on the Biden documents.
“Our system of classification exists so as to protect our most significant national security secrets, and we expect to be briefed on what happened each at Mar-a-Lago and on the Biden office as a part of our constitutional oversight obligations,” he said. “From what we all know to date, the latter is about finding documents with markings, and turning them over, which is definitely different from a months-long effort to retain material actively being sought by the federal government. But again, that’s why we must be briefed.”
The documents were found on Nov. 2, 2022, in a “locked closet” within the office, in response to special counsel to the president Richard Sauber.
Sauber said the attorneys immediately alerted the White House counsel’s office, which notified the National Archives and Records Administration — which took custody of the documents the following day.
A one who is accustomed to the matter but not authorized to debate it publicly said Attorney General Merrick Garland asked US attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch to review the matter after the archives referred the difficulty to the department. Lausch is one in all the few US attorneys to be held over from Trump’s administration.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
California Rep. Porter to run for US Senate
WASHINGTON — Representative Katie Porter, a third-term California Democrat who studied under Elizabeth Warren at Harvard University and have become a social media darling of liberal Democrats, said Tuesday that she would run in 2024 for the Senate seat held by Dianne Feinstein.
Porter, 49, is the primary announced challenger to Feinstein, 89, who has not declared her intentions about 2024 but is widely expected to not seek reelection amid Democratic worries about her ability to serve. Last yr, Feinstein declined to function president pro tem of the Senate and earlier relinquished her post as the highest Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“It’s time for brand new leadership within the US Senate,” Porter said in announcing her campaign.
Porter’s early campaign announcement jump-starts a race that is definite to be amongst the most costly intraparty contests within the country. A vaunted fund-raiser, Porter became known for her combative treatment of witnesses from the financial sector and Trump administration officials who appeared before her on the House Oversight Committee.
The Iowa-born Porter was a number one surrogate for Warren’s 2020 campaign. She worked as a law professor on the University of California Irvine, and in 2012 was appointed by Kamala Harris, then the California attorney general, to oversee a $9 billion settlement after the mortgage crisis. She was elected to Congress in 2018.
Other California Democrats who haven’t announced campaigns for Feinstein’s Senate seat but are believed to be considering bids include Representatives Adam Schiff, Barbara Lee, and Ro Khanna.
NEW YORK TIMES
House GOP makes moves on investigations
WASHINGTON — House Republicans moved Tuesday to swiftly establish the marquee investigations of their latest majority, voting to create panels focused on China and what they assert is rampant abuse of power within the federal government.
Newly empowered, GOP lawmakers are vowing to bring accountability to the Biden administration, pledging to research federal law enforcement agencies, including those which are conducting probes into former president Donald Trump.
Republicans also established a committee, with broad bipartisan support, to research “strategic competition” between america and China, consistent with the party’s push for a more hardline approach to the Asian nation.
The creation of the committees is the primary of many investigative steps Republicans plan to take as they settle into their slim majority.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Democrats seek ethics investigation into Santos
Representatives Daniel Goldman and Ritchie Torres, each Latest York Democrats, filed an official criticism Tuesday asking the House Committee on Ethics to research Representative George Santos, a Latest York Republican, who admitted to lying about his background after a report last month in The Latest York Times.
The congressmen requested that the House committee explore whether Santos, a first-year lawmaker representing parts of Long Island and Queens, broke the law when he filed his required financial disclosures late and without key details about his funds.
“Congressman Torres and I feel it’s incredibly essential to ensure that that the integrity of the House and the integrity of its members are put front, at the beginning,” said Goldman, a former federal prosecutor.
The criticism by Goldman and Torres, made just days after Santos took his oath of office, adds pressure to a novice lawmaker already surrounded by controversy and facing calls to resign.
Santos entered Congress last week dogged by scrutiny from fellow lawmakers and the general public alike after the Times uncovered inconsistencies in his background, found omissions in his financial disclosures, and raised questions on his campaign expenses. Federal and native prosecutors have said they’re looking into whether Santos committed any crimes involving his funds or his lies on the campaign trail.
In interviews with select news media outlets, Santos has acknowledged lying to voters about his educational and skilled history, though he has admitted only to “embellishing” his resume. His lawyer, Joe Murray, has said in an announcement the campaign’s spending didn’t break any inance laws.
NEW YORK TIMES
Yellen said to comply with stay at Treasury
President Biden asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to remain in her post, and he or she agreed, a White House official accustomed to the matter said.
Biden made the request in mid-December, the official said. Biden is preparing for turnover in his Cabinet and questions have swirled over how long Yellen would remain in his administration.
Bloomberg has previously reported that Yellen, 76, was prepared to stay Treasury secretary well after the midterms.
Treasury officials declined to comment.
The event ensures stability on the Treasury ahead of a fight in Congress over raising the debt ceiling and a looming threat of a recession because the Federal Reserve raises rates of interest to chill inflation.
The move also gives Yellen more time to see through a few of her key priorities, including a revamp of the Internal Revenue Service, reforms on the World Bank, and adding pressure on Russia over its Ukraine war via sanctions and the oil price cap.
While Yellen already enjoys strong standing with lots of her international counterparts, the general public confirmation bolsters her position abroad by removing any concerns amongst foreign finance ministers, central bank governors, and other officials that Treasury policy was subject to a big change.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
