CIA Director John Radcliffe is "sitting on a ton of information" and must release the details about the Afghan accused of killing one guardsman, critically wounding another, and who became involved with the CIA in Afghanistan before being cleared for resettlement in the U.S., former assistant U.S. attorney Anita Gorecki-Robbins told Newsmax on Sunday.
"I think a lot of the guessing could be done if Director Ratcliffe simply released the CIA documents that put him in this zero unit, right?" she said on Newsmax's "Sunday Report."
"This guy got up into the big leagues, right into the CIA, into this unit. So presumably, Director Ratcliffe is sitting on a ton of information about how he was vetted, this Afghan," she added.
Gorecki-Robbins' call for transparency follows last week's shootings in Washington, D.C., that killed West Virginia National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom and left guardsman Andrew Wolfe critically injured.
The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, the emergency evacuation program for Afghans who assisted U.S. forces during the war.
Gorecki-Robbins said Lakanwal's prior work alongside U.S. intelligence likely formed the basis of his asylum approval this year.
She added that few service members were familiar with the elite unit Lakanwal served with, but he was still "trusted enough to be in an elite unit."
That involvement, she said, "was his mechanism to get asylum here," so the CIA's documents "should be released tomorrow.”
Questions also remain about whether warning signs emerged between the approval of his asylum in April and the Thanksgiving week attack.
Gorecki-Robbins said Lakanwal might have appeared stable during his CIA service and early residency in the U.S., but "somewhere between April and what happened on Thanksgiving, it's hard to know" what changed.
She noted that mental health concerns often surface unpredictably, saying violent crimes rarely follow a clear, linear motive.
Gorecki-Robbins noted that in her experience while prosecuting murder cases, she has learned that even minor stresses can become "the hair that breaks the camel's back."
She added that Lakanwal was about 5 years old when the war in Afghanistan began, raising the possibility that trauma from early childhood or service may be cited by defense attorneys who could seek CIA records for use at trial.
Gorecki-Robbins emphasized that motive remains the central unresolved question, particularly given that Lakanwal had been granted asylum and appeared intent on building a life in America.
"That is the million-dollar question," she said.
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