Press Releases

Washington DC — Representative Jim Himes, Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, today issued the following statement on the report released by Special Counsel Hur:

“The proper handling of classified information is of critical concern to the Intelligence Committee because failure to do so can threaten national security and sources and methods. Classified information should never be kept outside of a secure environment, and when mistakes occur, it is incumbent on those responsible to act quickly and transparently to correct the error. Reviewing the report issued by Special Counsel Robert Hur, it is clear that is precisely what President Biden and his advisors did upon discovery of a small number of classified documents among his files. Having had the opportunity as a member of the Gang of 8 to review some of the classified documents at issue for President Biden, as well as Former President Trump and Former Vice President Pence, it is clear that we need better systems to keep track of classified documents and make sure they don’t end up where they don’t belong.

“Any attempt to draw a comparison between the matter handled by Special Counsel Hur and the investigation that led to multiple serious criminal charges against former President Trump is absurd. The former President was given multiple opportunities to return the hundreds of highly classified documents in his possession and he refused or failed to do so. It was only through the use of a search warrant that the FBI was able to recover these documents from his residence. Former President Trump faces multiple charges in Florida on the basis of his unlawful and dangerous retention of classified information and specific acts he allegedly took to obstruct federal efforts to recover those documents.”