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A document outlining a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. and a private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material hidden on the Florida property.
Some of the seized documents detail top-secret US operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark. Only the president, some members of his cabinet or An official close to the Cabinet could authorize other government officials to learn the details of those special access programs, according to people familiar with the research, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive details of an ongoing investigation.
Documents on such classified operations require special need-to-know clearances, not just a secret clearance. Some special access programs may have as many as a couple of dozen government personnel cleared to know about an operation. Records dealing with these programs are kept under lock and key, almost always in a secure compartmentalized information facility, with a designated monitoring officer to carefully monitor their location.
But those documents were stored at Mar-a-Lago, with uncertain security, more than 18 months after Trump left the White House.
At the bottom of the busy Mar-a-Lago, a storage room where the secrets were kept
After months of trying, according to government court documents, the FBI has recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago this year: 184 in a set of 15 boxes sent to the National Archives and Records Administration in January, 38 more delivered. a Trump lawyer to investigators in June, and more than 100 additional documents were discovered at one search approved by the court on August 8.
It was in this latest batch of government secrets, people familiar with the matter said, that the information about a foreign government’s nuclear defense readiness was found. Those people did not identify the foreign government in question, say where the document was found at Mar-a-Lago or provide additional details about one of the Justice Department’s most sensitive national security investigations.
Christopher Kise, Trump’s lawyer, denounced the leaks about the case, saying that “you continue to have no respect for the process and no respect for the actual truth. This does not serve the interests of justice well.”
“Also, the damage to public confidence in the integrity of the system cannot be understated. The responsible course of action here would be for someone (anyone) in government to exercise leadership and control. The Court has provided a reasonable path which does not include the selective filtering of unverifiable and misleading information.There is no reason to deviate from this path if the goal is, as it should be, to find a rational solution to the document storage problems that have gotten unnecessarily out of control.”
Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the FBI declined to comment.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is conducting a risk assessment to determine how much potential harm was caused by the removal from government custody of hundreds of classified documents.
Trump and the Mar-a-Lago Papers: A Timeline
The Washington Post previously reported that FBI agents who searched Trump’s home were looking, in part, for any classified documents related to nuclear weapons. After that story broke, Trump compared it on social media to a series of previous government investigations into his conduct. “The nuclear weapons issue is a hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a hoax, two impeachments were a hoax, the Mueller investigation was a hoax and more. The same sleazy people involved” , he wrote, suggesting that FBI agents may have planted evidence against him.
A grand jury subpoena issued on May 11 demanded the return of “all documents or writings in the custody or control of Donald J. Trump and/or the office of Donald J. Trump that bear classification marks.” , including “Top Secret” and the minors. “Secret” and “Confidential” categories.
The subpoena, issued to the custodian of Trump’s records, listed more than two dozen subclassifications of documents, including “S/FRD,” an acronym for “Formerly Restricted Data,” which is reserved for information primarily related to military use of nuclear weapons. Despite the “formerly” in the title, the term does not mean that the information is no longer classified.
A person familiar with the Mar-a-Lago search said the purpose of the comprehensive list was to ensure the retrieval of all classified records at the property, not just those that investigators had reason to believe might be there. .
Investigators became alarmed, according to a person familiar with the search, when they began reviewing documents recovered from the club’s locker, Trump’s residence and his office in August. The team soon found records extremely restricted, so much so that even some of the highest national security officials in the Biden administration were not authorized to review them. A government document alluded to that information when it noted that FBI counterintelligence agents and prosecutors investigating the Mar-a-Lago documents were not initially authorized to review some of the seized material .
The FBI search of Mar-a-Lago followed months of resistance, delaying Trump
Among the more than 100 classified documents taken in August, some were marked “HCS,” a category of highly classified government information that refers to “HUMINT control systems,” which are systems used to protect intelligence. intelligence gathered from secret human sources, according to a court filing. A partially unsealed affidavit said documents found in the boxes that were sent to the National Archives in January related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. There was also material which was never meant to be shared with foreign nations.
The investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information, as well as the possible concealment, tampering or destruction of government records, became even more complex on Monday when a federal judge in Florida granted Trump’s request to appoint a master special to review the material seized in August. 8 search for and remove documents that may be covered by executive privilege, a legal rule that, as it applies to former presidents, is ill-defined.
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen M. Cannon ruled that the special master will also examine all of the nearly 13,000 documents and articles the FBI used to identify any that may be protected by the attorney privilege -customer, even. though Justice Department lawyers have said a “filter” team has already completed that task.
Cannon’s ruling could slow and complicate the government’s criminal investigation, especially if the Justice Department decides to revisit the unresolved and complicated questions of what executive privilege a former president can have. The judge ruled that investigators cannot “use” the seized material in their investigation until the special master concludes his examination.
A special master has yet to be appointed; Cannon has asked Trump and the Justice Department to agree on a list of qualified candidates by Friday. Legal experts noted that the Justice Department can still interview witnesses, use other evidence and present information to a grand jury while the special master examines the seized material.
In his order, Cannon said the appointment of a special master was necessary “to ensure at least the appearance of fairness and integrity under the extraordinary circumstances presented.”
The Justice Department filing points to a new legal hazard for Trump, his lawyers
He also reasoned that a special master could mitigate potential harm to Trump “through improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public,” suggesting that knowledge or details of the case were damaging to the former president and would could reduce by inserting special information. master the document review process.
Kise, Trump’s lawyer, cited that part of the judge’s reasoning Tuesday night, saying “the damage to public confidence in the integrity of the system simply cannot be understated.” He said the special appointment by the court provides “a sensible path that does not include the selective leaking of unverifiable and misleading information. There is no reason to deviate from that path if the goal is, as it should of course, to find a rational solution to the document storage problems that have gotten out of control unnecessarily.”
Cannon wrote that Trump’s position as a former president means that “the stigma attached to subject seizure is in a league of its own” and that a “future prosecution, based to any degree on the property that should be returned, would result in reputational damage of a decidedly different order of magnitude.”
While the FBI probe has drawn sharp condemnation from Trump and his Republican allies, who accuse the Justice Department of acting with political malice against a former president who could seek office again in 2024, some Republicans have said the action may have been necessary.
In an interview that aired Friday, Trump’s former attorney general, William P. Barr, said there is no reason the classified documents should have been at Mar-a-Lago after Trump was out of the position
“People are saying this was unprecedented,” Barr told Fox News. “But it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put it in a country club, okay?”
Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.