"Problematic"

While some GOP lawmakers acknowledged Friday that a scenario in which Trump withheld nuclear-related documents would be problematic, House Republican leaders are still rallying behind him and suggesting without evidence that President Joe Biden sought to weaponize DOJ against a political rival.

Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the House GOP Conference chair, accused Biden and his appointees of “complete abuse and overreach of [their] authority” and “targeting their political opponents,” adding that Trump is Biden’s “likeliest” opponent in the 2024 presidential election.

  Politico

You may recall that Trump is the one who wanted to weaponize the DOJ and the FBI. Biden was out of the loop for Wray and Garland's activities surrounding Trump's "problematic" (possible) violation of the Espionage Act.

As new information emerged about the circumstances behind the FBI search, the contrast grew starker between Republicans advancing a knee-jerk defense of the former president and those who are simply calling for additional disclosures from DOJ.

Among the senior Republicans acknowledging that it’s possible the presence of highly classified information at Mar-a-Lago would be a genuine national security concern was Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

[...]

Turner still said his opinion on whether the search was justified “depends on what the nuclear information is.” Turner said earlier this week that the only grounds for a search of a former president’s home would be the existence of a serious national security threat, but he declined to go that far on Friday [...] adding that he’s skeptical “anything that just has the umbrella of nuclear weapons in it ... would rise to the level of an immediate national security threat.”

[...]

“There were many other options available to them … besides raiding Mar-a-Lago and spending nine hours there.”

Name one that hadn't already been tried.

Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), an Intelligence Committee member, said it was important for the panel to glean additional information and acknowledged that mishandling of sensitive classified information would be a serious violation.

“I mean, if he had actual Special Access Programs — do you know how extraordinarily sensitive that is? That’s very, very sensitive. If that were actually at his residence, that would be a problem,” Stewart said. “But we just don’t know that. So let’s find out.”

[...]

Republican leaders also expressed support for rank-and-file FBI agents and condemned Thursday’s attack on an FBI building in Ohio. That attack was perpetrated by a man who was at the Capitol during the riot by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, and was reportedly motivated to attack FBI employees because of the search warrant on the former president’s residence.

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats remained circumspect. Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not yet commit to any congressional investigations, saying she had no more information than was publicly available.

[...]

House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — whom Republicans called on to join in their inquiries to the FBI — suggested that the circumstances

“The protection of classified information, and particularly the protection of sources and methods, is an issue of the highest priority for the Intelligence Committee, and as we learn more, we will responsibly discharge our oversight responsibilities,” Schiff said in a statement.

[...]

[Trump] posted a baseless claim that former President Barack Obama had held onto classified material related to nuclear weapons after leaving office, using Obama’s middle name of Hussein. The National Archives and Records Administration affirmed in a statement later Friday that the records Trump had referred to were not classified and are not under Obama’s control, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.

And I'm SURE Trump corrected his post.

Members of the pro-Trump House Freedom Caucus had scheduled an event of their own Friday morning to blast the DOJ moves this week but later canceled it, citing scheduling conflicts.

I didn't realize getting "problematic" information was a scheduling conflict.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

I don't think he can, Renato.

UPDATE: