US intelligence agencies are evaluating the damage caused by the confidential materials found in the Florida home of former President Donald Trump earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines' letter to lawmakers.
In a letter to Congress examined by the outlet, Haines supposedly stated that her office would oversee a review of "the potential risk to national security that would result from the disclosure of the relevant documents" by the intelligence community.
The brief letter, which is purportedly dated Friday, was forwarded to House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) but contained no other information regarding the assessment from the intelligence chief.
Reps. Schiff and Maloney reportedly expressed their approval of the damage estimate in a statement on Saturday.
The partially published affidavit "affirms [the lawmakers'] grave concern" that papers stored at Mar-a-Lago might threaten "human sources."
"It is critical that the [intelligence community] move swiftly to assess and, if necessary, to mitigate the damage done," the lawmakers noted, per the report.
Identification of exposed or compromised national intelligence data, including the sources and techniques of spy agencies, a description of the circumstances surrounding the incident, and an estimation of the actual or possible harm to US national security are all said to be included in a damage assessment.
According to the report, on August 13, Schiff and Maloney wrote to Haines requesting an evaluation of the damage after learning that Trump had removed and kept highly secret information at Mar-a-Lago.
Haines then reportedly stated in her letter on Friday that the Justice Department and her office are collaborating on a categorization evaluation of the allegedly improperly handled materials.
Haines's inquiry, according to her spokesman's remarks to the Wall Street Journal, is in line with a request from Senators Mark Warner (D-VA), and Marco Rubio (R-FL), the chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Warner reportedly stated on Friday that the committee had issued a bipartisan request for details regarding the secret materials taken from Mar-a-Lago and the threat that their alleged improper treatment poses to national security.
Separately, on Saturday, a federal judge in Florida reportedly indicated that she intended to appoint a special master to examine the papers that had been taken from Mar-a-Lago at the request of Trump's attorneys.
According to the report, Judge Aileen Cannon of the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida stated in a brief filing that she was prepared to appoint a special master but that her decision was not final. She reportedly set a hearing for Thursday to hear the arguments.
The judge also mandated that the Justice Department submit under seal a more thorough receipt listing the materials that were taken during the search on August 8 and an update on how the items are being examined by the investigators.
A special master is a trusted third party - typically a retired judge - who is responsible with assessing the evidence and weeding out irrelevant documents or communications exempt from discovery due to executive privilege, attorney-client privilege, or other similar legal doctrines.
National Archives Receiving Threats Following FBI's Raid
According to a Saturday report by the Washington Post, since the FBI's Mar-a-Lago search, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has seen an increase in threats and hate mail.
“NARA has received messages from the public accusing us of corruption and conspiring against the former President, or congratulating NARA for ‘bringing him down,’” acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall wrote in an email to staff on Wednesday, per the report. "Neither is accurate or welcome."
The National Archives has been in an epicenter of the ongoing battle for the return of papers from the Trump administration. Following the agency's January retrieval of 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago, NARA later reportedly acknowledged it had discovered classified information among the papers.
According to the report, National Archives officials thought there were still missing documents and reported the issue to the Department of Justice.
More to that, there are other federal agencies that are under attack, the outlet noted. In the wake of the Mar-a-Lago search, threats against law enforcement have increased, according to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.