On those boxes found at Mar-a-Lago, Congress should let Justice do its job

It is no secret that the Justice Department is looking into the removal of presidential records, including highly classified materials, to Trump’s home. Nor is it hush-hush that the National Archives and Records Administration, which retrieved the materials, asked the Justice Department to examine Trump’s handling of White House records.

The Justice Department is the chief enforcer of federal laws, including those concerning the handling of government documents. So how is it wrong for Justice to hold close its examination of the recovered boxes or discussions of their contents while a probe is underway?

To be sure, Maloney’s committee is responsible for determining whether legislation is needed to make certain that presidential records are lawfully preserved. But it also falls within Justice Department purview to investigate the scope of potential violations of Presidential Records Act and national security regulations.

Without strong and compelling evidence that the attorney general is impeding a congressional investigation of Trump’s actions, the Oversight Committee should take care that it itself does not impede an ongoing federal investigation. Garland has said his department will “look at the facts and the law and take it from there.” Disruption only aids those who may have flouted the law.

Much is at stake.

Reportedly among the records recovered from Mar-a-Lago were documents so sensitive that they may not be able to be publicly described in an unclassified inventory. That’s enough to send shivers down the spine of the U.S. intelligence community. Those national security officials know that the chief beneficiaries of mishandled U.S. classified information are foreign adversaries.

People familiar with the Mar-a-Lago discovery said that among the recovered records were documents at such a high level of classification that they could be viewed by only a small group of government officials granted proper clearances. That circuitous description by confidential sources strongly suggests that sensitive compartmented information might have been placed in jeopardy at Mar-a-Lago. As one who spent years in another life devoted to preventing unauthorized disclosure of classified information, I view as sickening the chance that it might have happened in the ex-president’s home.

A full investigation and damage assessment are crucial because Trump has already demonstrated that he could be reckless with the nation’s secrets.

To recall: Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and then-Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in a May 2017 Oval Office meeting. A U.S. official familiar with the incident said Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.” Reportedly, senior White House officials were so shaken by Trump’s unexpected disclosures to the Russians that they placed calls alerting the CIA and the National Security Agency — the two agencies most familiar with the sources and methods of collecting the information Trump disclosed.

Trump loyalists can complain all they want about the peddling of fake news. But an investigation of Trump’s handling — or mishandling — of U.S. government records at Mar-a-Lago should not be considered politically motivated. Nor should an investigation be treated as a bureaucratic examination into the fine details of record-keeping.

And it’s certainly no time for legislative vs. executive branch turf battles.

Laws and national security are at stake. Public officials, putting national interests first, should act like it.