The U.S. intelligence community will assess the potential national security risk from the release of materials recovered during an August 8 search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence, according to a letter. seen by Reuters.

The letter dated Friday from Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines to House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff and Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney also says the Department of Justice and the DNI “are working together to facilitate a review of the classification” of the materials, including those recovered during the search.

Schiff and Maloney said in a joint statement that they were satisfied the government was “assessing the damage caused by improper storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago,” the Politico news site reported before the letter was released.

The Justice Department revealed Friday that it was investigating Trump for taking White House records because it believed he was illegally keeping documents, including some related to intelligence gathering and clandestine sources, that are among the most closely guarded secrets in the United States. Joined.

Haines said the DNI “will also conduct an Intelligence Community (IC) assessment of the potential risk to national security that would result from the disclosure of the relevant documents,” including those seized.

The Justice Department on Friday released a heavily redacted affidavit on the basis of the extraordinary FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, in which agents seized 11 sets of classified records, including some labeled “top secret” documents that could seriously threaten national security if exposed.

In the affidavit, an unnamed FBI agent said the agency reviewed and identified 184 documents “with classification marks” that contained “national defense information” after Trump in January returned 15 boxes of government records requested by the FBI. United States National Archives.

Other records in those boxes, according to the affidavit, had notes handwritten by Trump.

Schiff and Maloney said Friday’s Justice Department statement “supports our grave concern that among the documents stored at Mar-a-Lago were some that could jeopardize human sources. It is critical that the IC move quickly to assess and, if necessary, mitigate the damage caused”.

The search is part of a federal investigation into whether Trump illegally removed and kept documents when he left office in January 2021, after losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, and whether Trump tried to obstruct the investigation.

Trump, a Republican who is considering another run for president in 2024, has described the court-approved search of the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach as politically motivated, and on Friday described it again as a “trespass.” .