There are security sealed rooms in Washington. The bags are locked. The ability to handcuff a document pouch to a messenger is extremely rare.
There is an elaborate system of government protocols and high-level security clearances that stand in stark contrast to the storage room of secrets at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
Lawmakers of both parties have more questions than answers as the Justice Department probes the former president. As they begin a lengthy risk assessment, intelligence officials have offered to brief congressional leaders. The legal fight between Trump and the government could delay the congressional briefings.
"We need to be able to do appropriate oversight for the Intelligence Committee so that we have a better handle on how this particular incident was handled, but so that we avoid problems like this in the future."
Capitol Hill is where 535 elected members of Congress, along with thousands of aides and countless more visitors broker information on a daily basis as a routine part of governing.
Secrets large and small, from the most mundane details about when an upcoming vote will be scheduled to the parlor intrigue of transitional alliances, are among the more valuable bits of currency that pass through the place.
The stream of information shuts down when it comes to classified materials.
Staff for the House and Senate Intelligence committees must get security clearances to handle documents and perform their jobs, which is one of the reasons why they are among the most public about their work. Some committee members dealing with military affairs and national security funds have restrictions.
The basement of the Capitol is where members of Congress go to look at classified material. There are more than one SCIF in the Capitol complex.
If documents need to be ferried in or out of secure locations, they are usually transported in a lock bag, a briefcase-sized pouch under a lock and key.
A lock bag is often used to transport materials from committee offices to a SCIF, according to a senator.
The idea that anyone would leave a building or a room without securing their documents is unbelievable.
Several senators and staff have never seen a situation where a document pouch can be handcuffed to a person's wrist.
The top Republican on the Intelligence Committee said he had only seen it in movies.
Lawmakers of both parties were shocked by Trump's alleged handling of the documents. Hundreds of classified records have been retrieved from Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club.
The senator from New Mexico warned of the president's handling of sensitive documents early on. A photo from a White House press briefing shows Trump and others in the Oval Office with a lock bag on the desk.
A key was left in a lock bag in the presence of non-cleared people. A review was requested by him.
The cavalier nature with which the former president treats information that can have life or death consequences for our sources is unbelievable.
There were more than a dozen boxes of papers and other items in a storage room at Mar-a-Lago. Soon after Trump left the White House, there was a fight over missing documents.
After the first delivery of documents, Trump attorneys said there was nothing left at the club. The FBI wanted the storage room to be locked up. More than 100 other documents with classified markings were found after a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago. The Trump team is under investigation by the Justice Department.
Cornyn wasn't sure if the documents held important information.
It has been sitting at Mar-a-Lago for over a year and a half before anything is done about it.
Cornyn said that there are ways to secure classified documents, but they should not be in your home.
If you break secrets on Capitol Hill, you can be punished quickly. After acknowledging that he had allowed a reporter to review a not classified but still "committee confidential" draft report on theContra wars in Latin America, Sen. Patrick Leahy left the Intelligence Committee. The former senior staff member of the Senate panel lied to investigators about his interactions with journalists.
The director of national intelligence was asked to assess the damage to national security that would result from the disclosure of the documents.
The issue is not whether the documents belong there or not, but whether they should have been stored there in the first place. The question is if there were good faith efforts made by the federal government to get the documents.
The top four leaders of the House and the Senate, along with the House and Senate intelligence committee leaders, were expected to be briefed by the intelligence office.
Due to Trump's litigation, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence may not be able to continue the assessment.
Warner asked for a risk assessment.
The Senate and the House are both back in session, but only in a secure location.
That's right.
Nomaan Merchant is a writer for the AP.
That's right.
The Associated Press has coverage of Donald Trump-related investigations.
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