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President Trump violated federal law once again by only briefing Republican leaders of the Gang of Eight. Such briefings are standard and extremely urgent in the build-up to a war. The Gang of Eight is a colloquial term for a set of eight leaders within the United States Congress who are briefed on classified intelligence matters by the executive branch. Specifically, the Gang of Eight includes the leaders of each of the two parties from both the Senate and House of Representatives, and the chairs and ranking minority members of both the Senate Committee and House Committee for intelligence as set forth by 50 U.S.C. § 3093(c)(2). United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence: Rick Crawford (R-AR), Chair Jim Himes (D-CT), Ranking Member United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence:Tom Cotton (R-AR), Chair Mark Warner (D-VA), Vice Chair Leadership in the United States House of Representatives:Mike Johnson (R-LA), Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Minority Leader Leadership in the United States Senate: John Thune (R-SD), Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Minority Leader You cannot side-step Congress just because you feel like it. Checks and Balances of a President exist for situations just like this.