Donated document collections of Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright and several other former US lawmakers and other high-ranking officials — have included potentially mishandled sensitive information, the National Archives and Records Administration said Thursday.
The Archives has received about 80 reports since 2009 of potentially classified or restricted documents donated to libraries, universities and museums by former members of Congress, diplomats, scientists and others.
The documents reported were screened and not all of them were or should remain classified or restricted. Other instances included documents that were unclassified, or redacted or returned as they were.
Archives officials disclosed the reported national-security document finds during a private meeting last week with House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican and Jim Himes of Connecticut, the panel’s top Democrat.
On Thursday, the Archives confirmed the briefing with its director of the information security oversight office and shared a list of those whose documents required screenings.
Kissinger and Albright were joined on the list by fellow former secretaries of state Cyrus Vance and Dean Acheson as well as those who shared sensitive documents outside the government. The lawmakers whose classified papers were shared include former Senator Ted Stevens, who was chair of the Appropriations Committee and its subcommittee on defense.
Himes and Turner on Wednesday said the disclosure indicates misuse of classified material has occurred on a far broader scale and at different levels of government than recent cases involving President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
“How that happened is beyond me,” Himes said, adding that mishandling occurred “way too much.”
Turner and Himes said they were told by Archives officials that various institutions have reported finding documents with classified markings among donated material they’ve received for former public officials.
Officials at the institutions that received these collections, after noticing the markings, inquired with the National Archives about returning the documents.
Separately on Wednesday, both Turner and Himes reiterated dissatisfaction with the amount of information that they and other House and Senate leaders received in a separate closed-door briefing last week regarding discoveries of documents at the residences or offices of Biden, Trump and Pence.
They said the FBI, Justice Department and intelligence officials had not been forthcoming, either in providing direct access to the documents in question or revealing much of what was in the material. They said the explanation given was that releasing the information would impede continuing investigations.
Turner complained that the top eight members of Congress who are charged with the nation’s most important secrets certainly are not going to be a threat to those inquiries.
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