Reports about former President Donald Trump‘s legal team handing over to prosecutors a laptop belonging to one of his aides has spurred calls for Republicans to hold a new congressional hearing to look into the matter.
Representative Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, said that House Republicans should hold a hearing about the aide’s laptop similar to the one they held this week, which focused on the suppression of a New York Post article that was published in 2020 about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“Since MAGA Republicans are obsessed about laptops, @HouseGOP should do a hearing on the Trump laptop that illegally stored classified information. Instead, House GOP did a stupid hearing on what Twitter said about a widely known NY Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop,” Lieu tweeted on Friday.
Trump’s legal team in December and January turned over the laptop, along with more documents with classified markings, CNN reported on Friday. The documents included an empty folder with the label, “Classified Evening Briefing.”
Since MAGA Republicans are obsessed about laptops, @HouseGOP should do a hearing on the Trump laptop that illegally stored classified information.
Instead, House GOP did a stupid hearing on what Twitter said about a widely known NY Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. https://t.co/wkX2am2VSF
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) February 11, 2023
Pages with classified markings were found by Trump’s lawyers at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and were turned over to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Trump’s unnamed aide, who works for Save America PAC, reportedly made a copy of those same pages and added them to a thumb drive and laptop without realizing they were classified.
“Since House Republicans love to hold hearings over laptops, they should immediately hold a hearing discussing the #TrumpLaptop, said Democratic activist and lawyer Aaron Parnas.
“Trump laptop?????? Dear @Jim_Jordan , Will there be a hearing on the trump laptop?” asked Christopher Gibbs, chair of the nonprofit, Rural Voices USA.
Meanwhile, social media personality Brian Krassenstein tweeted: “‘Accuse your opponent of what you are guilty of…’ For the last 3 years we have been hearing about Hunter Biden’s ‘laptop from hell’. The real laptop from hell could be the #TrumpLaptop in which classified documents were copied onto and found at Mar-a-lago. THAT IS A CRIME!”
“Trump attorney James Trusty informed agents that top secret documents had been electronically copied to a laptop of a current Trump aide. Donald is a clear and present danger to our national security,” wrote Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney.
A GOP-led House committee held a hearing on Wednesday over Twitter‘s decision to temporarily block the Hunter Biden laptop story. The social media company temporarily prevented users from sharing the New York Post‘s article in October 2020, fearing that the story about the laptop’s contents was the result of an illegal hacking. The newspaper reported that the laptop allegedly contained information about Hunter Biden’s finances and ties to foreign companies.
During the hearing, Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said that the former Twitter employees were “played” by the FBI, adding that the company’s executives searched for reasons to remove the article.
The hearing was part of an ongoing effort to investigate the alleged “weaponization” of federal agencies under the Biden administration.
The Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which is chaired by Jordan, was launched after a 221-211 House vote in January. The subcommittee aims to look into a number of subjects, including the DOJ’s investigations against Trump and whether or not the FBI tried to censor conservative voices.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s media office and Jordan’s media representatives for comment.
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