Markwayne Mullin talks Mar-a-Lago raid, says DOJ has not responded to intel committee letter

FIRST ON FOX: The unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago last week plunged the country into a political media maelstrom as reports rained down ranging from nuclear-related documents being sought to former President Trump’s passports being taken.

Republicans have denounced the raid, and House Republicans on the Intelligence Committee held a press conference in the wake of the FBI’s actions.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has not responded to House Intelligence Committee Republicans’ letter requesting a briefing on the unprecedented raid, Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital. 

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Mullin, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, spoke with Fox News Digital over the phone and was asked if he had any insight on the raid he could share.

“To be honest, I want to be very honest. We don’t,” Mullin said, referring to Republican intelligence committee members. “That’s the frustrating thing about it.”

The Oklahoma Senate candidate revealed during the interview that, as of Saturday, House Intelligence Republicans have not been “briefed” on the raid at all and noted that both the DOJ and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., have been silent so far toward Mullin and his GOP colleagues as they ask for a briefing.

Mullin’s office confirmed on Wednesday that committee Republicans have not received a response to their letter.

“We’ve asked them to come in and brief the Republicans,” Mullin said. “We’ve asked Chairman Schiff, to either bring them in or subpoena them to come in. And they have been completely silent on this.”

Mullin said the DOJ and FBI can brief the committee members “for sure,” but perhaps not the rest of Congress as the Intelligence Committee members have special clearance.

Mullin said he was feeling “frustration” over the situation as he and his committee colleagues “have direct oversight over Director [Christopher] Wray and the FBI.”

“And there is nothing that we don’t have clearance for,” Mullin said, noting the small membership of his committee due to the sensitive proceedings.

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The Oklahoma Senate candidate said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if President Biden “didn’t know about” the raid, but did not see the White House not knowing about it.

Mullin also pointed to the messaging coming out of the administration that shifted from the White House not knowing about the raid to solely Biden not knowing about it. 

The congressman also said that every day the DOJ waits “to brief the American people en masse, or even Congress as a whole, even the Intel Committee, it looks worse and worse and worse on them.”

“I mean, it’s been 500-plus days since he’s left office,” Mullin said. “Why was it all of a sudden an immediate national security risk? Because that would be the only reason for something of this magnitude to take place. It would be an immediate national security risk.”

Mullin said the raid “eroded” much of the goodwill cultivated by the DOJ recently and the fallout will take “decades” to repair. The Senate candidate also said he believes this will move the needle in the 2022 midterms.

“Yes. In this right here, the agencies have overstepped. This agency has overstepped, and they have lit an absolute fire underneath the Republican Party,” the congressman said. “Even those that were kind of leaning off the trough, they’re thinking maybe we should look for someone else. Not anymore.”

“They are solid, rock solid,” he continued. “They see what’s happened here.”

The Republican congressman also said government oversight is the reason behind him running for Senate.

“The reason why I ran for Senate to begin with was to hold these agencies like this accountable,” Mullin said. “It’s just, it’s frustrating to me because these agencies have been running so rogue that they’re not, they haven’t been accountable to Congress at all. And the Senate at least has more direct oversight than Congress.”

A DOJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the agency was reviewing the letter in its normal course.

A spokesperson for the House Intelligence Committee told Fox News Digital that the “Intelligence Committee Majority is deeply concerned by indications that highly-classified material was mishandled, and sent a letter to the Director of National Intelligence asking that a damage assessment be conducted and the committee be briefed on the documents and assessment as soon as possible, a briefing that would be done on a bipartisan basis.”

“The Majority has yet to receive a request from Committee Republicans regarding the documents, and has a grave concern that public comments by the minority about the execution of a valid search warrant are only putting the safety of FBI and other law enforcement personnel at risk,” the spokesperson continued. “The Committee will continue to exercise responsible oversight of this issue, particularly with respect to the possible disclosure or compromise of highly classified information by IC agencies.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland signed off on the controversial, unprecedented raid, with the FBI taking multiple boxes of documents from Trump’s Florida residence.