Avril
Haines, director of United States’ National Intelligence, has decided to
undertake a damage assessment of the documents taken by former President Donald
Trump to his Palm Beach, Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. A letter to the effect
was sent by Haines to toe House Intelligence and House Select Committee, CNN
and POLITICO reported.

“The
Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence (ODNI) are working together to facilitate a classification review
of relevant materials, including those recovered during the search,” according
to Haines’ letter accessed by CNN. Haines’ letter is addressed to House Intelligence
Committee Chair Adam Schiff and House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn
Maloney.

Also Read | Donald Trump mixed top secret documents with magazines: FBI

Avril
Haines’ decision to undertake a damage assessment after similar calls by
several members of Congress.

Adam Schiff
and Carolyn Maloney said they were pleased with Haines’ decision to launch the
intelligence damage assessment of classified documents found at Donald Trump’s
residence at Mar-a-Lago, according to a joint statement. Schiff and Maloney had
called for the assessment after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
raided the former president’s home earlier this month.

Also Read | Why Justice Department redacted Donald Trump home search warrant

The
Department of Justice, on Friday, released a redacted version of the search
warrant affidavit that allowed the FBI to search Donald Trump’s home. Large
parts of the affidavit were redacted in order to protect witnesses and to stop
the road map of the investigation from becoming public.

In May this
year, FBI reviewed 15 boxes obtained from Donald Trump’s home and found the
former president had stored confidential material along with magazines,
newspapers and other personal correspondence. According to the affidavit
released Friday, the boxes contained 184 documents marked classified. Of these,
67 documents were marked confidential, 92 documents secret, and 25 documents
top secret.

Donald
Trump, however, has maintained that the investigation is political. He has
called the probe a “total public relations subterfuge” by the Department of
Justice and the FBI.