The comments from Democrats and Republicans on Sunday were among the first reactions from Congress to Friday’s issuance of a search warrant presented by the FBI on the day of the Aug. 8 visit. The search warrant revealed that Trump was being investigated for serious violations of law related to national defense, mismanagement of government material and obstruction of justice, prompting questions from Capitol Hill. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, and Marco Rubio, R-Florida, chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked the Justice Department and the director of national intelligence on Sunday to provide the committee with “ the classified documents seized during the investigation” and “an assessment of potential risks to national security as a result of their mishandling,” a commission spokesman said. Lawmakers’ reactions belied a deep partisan divide over Trump’s treatment by US law enforcement. Democrats have focused on the legal gravity of the former president’s conduct, while Republicans have expressed skepticism and criticized the investigation. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has asked the director of National Intelligence to review the damage to American interests – formally known as a damage assessment – resulting from Trump’s decision to keep a trove of sensitive material after he leaves the White House in early 2021. “What is, to me, most troubling here is the extent to which . . . appears to be deliberate, on the president’s part — keeping these documents after the government asked for them back. And that adds another layer of concern,” Schiff said. Republicans, many of whom rushed to Trump’s side and attacked the Justice Department, the FBI and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, demanded that federal authorities release the affidavit in support of the search warrant. The affidavits, which are usually kept secret during a federal investigation, contain details about why the Justice Department asked a federal judge to authorize the search. “All Garland has to do is comply with the laws, give us this information, let’s look. Show us the goods,” Mike Turner, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN. “We have to determine, is this a threat to national security? And . . . was there an abuse of discretion by Attorney General Garland?’ “I think it’s very important in the long run for the justice department, now that they’ve done this, that they show that it wasn’t just a fishing spree — that they had a good reason to go in and do this, that they did it to exhaust everything else inside. And if they can’t do that, then we’ve got a serious problem on our hands,” Mike Rounds, a Republican senator from South Dakota, told NBC. Trump has argued that the investigation was a politically motivated stunt and claimed to have declassified the material before leaving office, although there is no evidence of such a step. According to the list of 45 items the FBI discovered at Trump’s Florida estate, 11 were classified by authorities as top secret, secret, secret or confidential. On Sunday, the former president said the boxes recovered by the FBI contained items protected by attorney-client privilege. “I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were obtained,” he wrote on his Truth Social account.

He also renewed his attacks on US law enforcement, lamenting in another post the “complete and utter stranglehold that Radical Left Democrats have on the DOJ and FBI.” Trump added that they would “never attack the home of a former Democratic president” and that “it’s all so out of control [with] great simmering anger.” Harsh criticism from Trump and his Republican allies has raised fears of violence against the FBI and DoJ. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI issued a joint bulletin on Friday about possible attacks on law enforcement personnel and facilities, as anger has flared among Trump’s conservative base of supporters already deeply distrustful of the federal government. The White House has tried to distance itself from the investigation into Trump’s wealth. Asked to comment on the latest revelations that the recovered material could compromise national security, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “We are not intervening. We are not informed. We don’t mess around.” But congressional Democrats were less reserved. “When I look at classified documents, I have to go to a special room. I can’t even wear my Fitbit. You cannot bring staff with you. And that’s because these documents not only contain our nation’s top secrets, but because countries that will harm us, will harm our own citizens, we don’t want them caught in any way,” said Amy Klobuchar, Democratic Sen. . from Minnesota, he told NBC. “This is why it is so important that these documents remain in secure locations. And Mar-a-Lago, where you can see croquet sets, tennis rackets and golf clubs, is not one of them.”