Alex Iftimie spoke to Bloomberg Law about the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) examining classified records seized at Mar-a-Lago to determine if criminal laws were broken or national security was damaged.
An important step in assessing the materials is to make sure the security labels, such as top secret, are still correct. This determination is likely to involve an interagency intelligence review, possibly including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Department, and the National Security Agency.
"Those agencies would inform the DOJ about what is actually classified in those documents to inform DOJ's next steps in their investigation," Alex said, noting that at these levels, the reviews are likely to be conducted by career officials as opposed to political appointees.
He added: "My expectation is that the individuals who are going to be leading this effort are civil servants and career professionals and that these agencies would take steps to insulate the individuals who are participating in this kind of damage review from any political influence – both to protect the individuals and to protect this process from being seen as politicized."
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Originally published by Bloomberg Law
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