Adam Schiff says it's possible Biden's handling of classified documents endangered national security

Congressman Adam Schiff, the outgoing chair of the House Intel Committee, said Sunday that he cannot 'exclude the possibility' that President Biden's handling of classified documents endangered national security.

During an appearance with ABC News' Jon Karl on Sunday, the host asked Schiff if he approved of Attorney General Merrick Garland's decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate the discovery of multiple classified documents found at the president's home and former office.

Schiff, who gained national prominence peddling various debunked theories about former President Donald Trump's ties to Russia, called the appointment 'the right move.'

Rep. Adam Schiff spoke with ABC's Jon Karl about AG Merrick Garland appointing a special counsel to oversee an investigation into Joe Biden's handling of classified documents

'The attorney general has to make sure that not only is justice even applied, but the appearances of justice are also satisfactory to the public,' he added.

'I don't think he had any choice but to appoint a special counsel. And I think that special counsel will do the proper assessment,' he continued.

Schiff went on to say that Biden's documents should be assessed as should the documents discovered at former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago property.

Karl then asked the congressman if he believes Biden possibly 'jeopardized' national security in a similar fashion to Trump.

'I don't think we can exclude the possibility without knowing more of the facts,' said Schiff. 'We have asked for an assessment in the intelligence community of the Mar-a-Lago documents. I think we ought to get that same assessment of the documents found in the think tank, as well as the home of President Biden.'

Karl then questioned the California representative about whether the Biden White House should have been more forthcoming about the discovery of the documents, which were found just days before the Midterm Elections.

'I think the administration will need to answer that question. I’m going to reserve judgment until they do,' said Schiff, who was notoriously quick to jump on cable news to speculate about Trump's misdeeds during his presidency.

It was revealed last week that multiple top secret and otherwise classified materials dating back to his vice presidential days were found at the DC think tank and Delaware home of President Joe Biden

Schiff was a major proponent of the Steele Dossier and now largely debunked theory that former President Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 election and after

Newly elected Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy recently said that he will make good on his promise to kick Democrat Schiff off the House Intelligence Committee lying 'too many times to the American public.'

Schiff infamously read into the congressional record the Steele dossier - the entirely debunked document that alleged Russian actors were working to discredit Hillary Clinton and boost the profile of Donald Trump ahead of the 2016 election.

The main source for the dossier was ultimately indicted by the FBI for lying about the most important claims in the document that fostered years of entirely public speculation that the former president was involved with Russian espionage efforts.

On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland authorized Robert Hur to investigate the 'possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records.'

Newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently reaffirmed his commitment to kicking Adam Schiff off of the House Intelligence committee

The president told the press Thursday that the documents found in Delaware were locked up with his Corvette

Biden's team has denied any wrongdoing and predicted that he'll be cleared of any criminality.

'We have cooperated from the moment we informed the Archives that a small number of documents were found, and we will continue to cooperate,' Richard Sauber, a senior White House lawyer, said in a statement, adding that the documents were 'inadvertently misplaced' and not illegally mishandled.

The top secret documents found in DC include US intelligence memorandums and briefing materials that covered topics including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom, CNN reported.

There was also a memo from Biden to President Obama as well as two briefing memos preparing Biden for phone calls – one with the British prime minister, the other with Donald Tusk, the former prime minister of Poland who served as president of the European Council from 2014-2019.

Biden fired back at reporters who asked about the debacle on Thursday saying that the documents found in Delaware were in a 'locked garage' with his beloved Corvette.

'People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously. I also said we're co-operating fully and completely with the Justice Department's review,' he said.

The revelation of the classified material is deeply awkward for Biden, as well as allies of his like Schiff, who condemned Donald Trump last year when it emerged that he had boxes of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.