The “Gang of Eight”, which includes former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden and Vice President Mike Pence, now have access to classified documents.

Punchbowl News first reported the development and multiple news outlets confirmed it. This is after both the Democrats and Republicans repeatedly requested congressional oversight of documents from the Biden administration.

The Gang of Eight is made up of four senatorial party leaders and four chairmen and ranking members of Senate intelligence committees. They have access to sensitive information.

Gang of Eight: Who are these people?

The Gang of Eight is a collective term for the four congressional leaders and the heads of the House Intelligence Committees and Senate Intelligence Committees.

The four party leaders are House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), is the ranking member of that committee.

Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.), is the chair of Senate Intelligence Committee, while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is vice-chair of the committee.

Classified documents stoke bipartisan anger at White House

Key lawmakers repeatedly pressed the Biden administration to allow them to review classified documents that were discovered in the possession Trump, Biden, and Pence.

Warner stated that “We have the right, not only as members of the Intelligence Committee, but as part of the leadership, to read virtually all classified documents,” on CBS’ Face the Nation earlier in January.

The Gang of Eight was previously briefed by the Department of Justice on the classified documents, but the documents were not made available for direct review by lawmakers. The department justified its decision not to share the documents, arguing that it could affect ongoing investigations by special counsel.

Even so, legislators asserted they were entitled to the documents, citing national safety concerns and future efforts by Congress to protect classified information.

“We don’t care about the timeline, tick-tock, who got what, and who did that?” Rubio stated that those are criminal justice issues, in the limited sense that it is, on CBS’ Face the Nation in January.

Leaked classified documents from the Pentagon

This is a move that comes after classified documents from the Pentagon were leaked. These documents exposed sensitive military information about the war in Ukraine. They include U.S. spy aircrafts in the area and estimates of Ukrainian casualties.