“Only certain personnel are authorized to possess classified information at the Capitol. Usually they keep them in our Intelligence Committee and walk around with a locked bag that has them in them,” says Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “So you can’t make a photocopy and send it to yourself as an email attachment.”
When it comes to uncovering America’s secrets, even the leaders on Capitol Hill don’t have privileged access. “They brought them. I read them. They take them out. So they couldn’t even stay on my desk,” says Durbin. “I don’t understand why the executive branch has such a lax approach to this, when we have three elected officials with these documents in their possession and not explaining why.”
Other committees may request access to classified documents in the possession of the Intelligence Committee. If the request is approved by the select committee, the documents are routed – under lock and key – to other lawmakers with a stern warning: “These documents must be accompanied by verbal or written notice to the recipients informing them of their responsibility to protect these documents. materials.” Every night, sensitive documents must be returned to a secure SCIF. A written record of secrecy travel is required.
This is why the confusion at the Capitol is so bipartisan these days: How can such a sensitive document be misplaced? Not to mention lots?
“I don’t know how you actually do that.” That’s the question, but we’re talking about the president and the vice president, and it’s a little different,” says Republican Sen. Lyndsey Graham of South Carolina, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
The restrictions are so strict that Rubio doesn’t even believe reports claiming classified documents have been found dating back to Biden’s Senate days. He calls the reports “confusing.”
“I heard this in the media. It was never confirmed to me…that it would be weird,” Rubio says. “So, frankly, I don’t know, as far as the Senate article goes, how that could be possible.”
The other thing that is perplexing is that the technology used at the Capitol is widespread in Washington, particularly the secure rooms used to protect materials. “The Situation Room is a SCIF. There are SCIFs in the army. There are SCIFs in the FBI,” says Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois. “I can’t explain it, there’s no excuse for it. There is no excuse for poor document management.
