Washington — The Division of Justice is working to transient lawmakers on potential dangers to nationwide safety after the invention of labeled paperwork on the properties of each former President Donald Trump and President Biden, a division official advised senators in a letter Saturday.

The letter by Assistant Legal professional Basic Carlos Uriarte, which CBS Information obtained from a Capitol Hill supply, was transmitted to the heads of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Saturday evening and got here in response to earlier requests from the panel’s prime two members for details about the paperwork.

“We’re working with the Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence to help the availability of knowledge that can fulfill the Committee’s tasks with out harming the continuing Particular Counsel investigations,” Uriarte wrote in a letter to Sens. Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, the chair and vice chair of the committee.

The letter revealed that the Justice Division tried to transient lawmakers final September. It additionally acknowledged “vital developments” since then, together with the appointment of two particular counsels to supervise separate investigations into the paperwork discovered at Trump’s Florida property and Mr. Biden’s Delaware dwelling.

“Though one of many Particular Counsels was appointed solely on January 12, prosecutors on each issues are actively working to allow sharing info with the Committee,” Uriarte wrote.

It stays unclear why division officers didn’t transient lawmakers final fall. 

In a separate remark to CBS Information, a Justice Division spokesperson stated: “The Division is dedicated to sharing as a lot info as we will with Congress with out endangering the integrity of our ongoing investigations. That has been the Division’s longstanding coverage, and we’ll proceed to use that coverage equally.”

Legal professional Basic Merrick Garland in November appointed particular counsel Jack Smith to take over the probe into Trump’s handling of documents bearing classification markings found at his Mar-a-Lago property.

In response to inquiries from CBS News, the White Home confirmed earlier this month that paperwork marked labeled relationship again to Mr. Biden’s vice presidency had been found at his former workplace at a assume tank in Washington on Nov. 2. Additional records with classification markings have since been discovered on the president’s Wilmington, Delaware, dwelling. Garland earlier this month named a second special counsel, Robert Hur, to supervise the Justice Division’s investigation into the paperwork present in Mr. Biden’s possession.

Saturday’s letter was additionally despatched to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, a Democrat, and rating member Lindsey Graham, a Republican. Uriarte leads the Justice Division’s Workplace of Legislative Affairs.

Within the wake of the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago, there have been bicameral requests for details about the potential nationwide safety dangers posed by the paperwork retrieved by federal investigators. The federal government has recovered greater than 300 paperwork bearing classification markings from Trump for the reason that finish of his presidency.

Lawmakers have sought related info relating to the roughly 25 to 30 information discovered at Mr. Biden’s former workplace on the Penn Biden Middle for Diplomacy and World Engagement and his Wilmington home. A number of the paperwork date again to his time within the Senate and others to his vice presidency.

The Senate Intelligence Committee met final week with Director of Nationwide Intelligence Avril Haines, however Warner and Rubio stated the assembly left them unhappy as they’ve been unable to see the information present in Mr. Biden’s and Trump’s properties.

“Our job isn’t to determine if anyone mishandled these. Our job is to ensure there’s not an intelligence compromise,” Warner told “Face the Nation” in an interview taped final Thursday. “And whereas the director of nationwide intelligence had been prepared to transient us earlier, now that you have the particular counsel, the notion that we’ll be left in limbo and we will not do our job — that simply can not stand.”

Rubio advised “Face the Nation” it is an “untenable scenario” for the Intelligence Committee to be denied entry to the information due to the particular counsels’ investigations.

Uriarte wrote within the letter to Warner and Rubio that the division “seems to be ahead to persevering with to interact with the Committee to fulfill its wants whereas defending the Division’s pursuits.”

“The Division’s longstanding coverage is to take care of the confidentiality of knowledge relating to open issues,” he wrote. “The Committee’s curiosity in overseeing the nation’s intelligence actions have to be fastidiously balanced to guard the conduct and integrity of regulation enforcement investigations.”

Uriarte added that the Justice Division’s coverage protects the pursuits of the American folks and “efficient administration of justice.”

“Disclosing personal details about ongoing investigations might violate statutory necessities or courtroom orders, reveal highway maps of our investigations, and intervene with the Division’s capacity to collect information, interview witnesses, and produce prison prosecutions the place warranted,” he stated. “Sustaining confidentiality additionally safeguards the authorized rights, private security, and privateness pursuits of people implicated by, or who help in, our investigations.”

GOP Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the brand new Home Intelligence Committee chairman, advised “Face the Nation” in December {that a} briefing and injury evaluation by the director of nationwide intelligence had been “in course of,” however said last week that he had not heard from the intelligence group since formally requesting a briefing earlier in January. Turner gave the director a deadline of Jan. 26 to conform.