The Senate Intelligence Committee should see documents related to the FBI’s search on former President Donald Trump’s property earlier this week, Sen. Susan Collins said Friday.
Collins, a member of the committee, said that the unsealed warrant and property list revealed little about the types of documents seized by FBI agents. The committee is considering asking Attorney General Merrick Garland for access, she said.
“The Senate Intelligence Committee, which has oversight responsibility for intelligence actions, should contact the Attorney General to request full access to the documents,” the Republican senator said. “Such a request is now being discussed among members of the committee on which I serve.”
Her comments came the day that it was revealed federal authorities recovered 11 sets of “top secret” documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida as part of an investigation into potential violations of three federal laws, including one under the Espionage Act. A federal judge on Friday unsealed the search warrant and property receipt.
Collins called the release of the documents a “first step” toward a more transparent understanding by the public of why authorities had searched the former president’s home.
Collins called the FBI’s search “unprecedented,” during an appearance in East Millinocket on Tuesday. On Wednesday, she went further, saying that if the investigation was only about disputes over documents, the raid would appear to have been an excessive action by the Department of Justice.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage and Republican candidate for the 2nd Congressional District, Bruce Poliquin, both condemned the raid earlier the week, with LePage saying Trump was being treated like a murderer and Poliquin saying he would push for an investigation into it if it if elected to the House.
Neither responded to requests for comment about the new disclosure from the warrant.
Republican Ed Thelander, who is running in the 1st Congressional District and called for the FBI to be more transparent about the reason for the raid earlier in the week, also did not respond to a request for comment about new revelations related to the raid.