In pursuit of Monday’s unprecedented search of Donald Trump’s residence, the FBI sought to retrieve top-secret and “classified” documents dealing with the “sources and methods” of intelligence, two federal government sources told Newsweek — documents with the potential to disclose US intelligence sources, including human sources on the payroll of the US government.
This greatly complicates any public discussion of the documents or any evidence of Trump’s potential violation of US law. The sources, who were briefed on the investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower to meet with New York Attorney General Letitia James for a civil investigation on August 10, 2022 in New York. (Photo by James Devaney/GC Images) James Devaney/GC Images
“Separated” is a specific term meaning “classified information about or derived from intelligence sources, methods, or analytical processes that must be handled within formal access control systems established by the Director of National Intelligence.” It includes a variety of different access categories – for example, human, intercept, satellite sources – each of which limits how many people can know the nature of the ward. One government source said the Mar-a-Lago case involved information from a “special access program,” another category of information restricted to an even smaller group of people.
Intelligence sources familiar with the classification system and the investigation said neither the search warrant nor the inventory, if released, would likely answer most people’s questions about whether the search was necessary.
“To make the case that this is a matter of national security and it’s essential to do it that way, some details of what Trump has been keeping would have to be revealed,” said one intelligence officer who was briefed on the matter. on condition of anonymity to speak about an ongoing investigation. Newsweek. “This may be difficult for the government precisely because of the sensitivity of the documents.
Under normal circumstances, investigators make a detailed inventory of all materials taken from a person or property that is searched, and file a copy of that inventory with the court that approved the search warrant. But in the case of classified documents, the inventory list may be intentionally vague: for example, “ten documents numbered 1 through 10, consisting of 65 pages, marked Top Secret and higher.” Because it is assumed that the search warrant may become public, neither the inventory nor the search warrant will include classified information.
The former president does not have the authority to declassify such documents, intelligence sources said, because they are classified by law, not by executive order. Trump’s possession of these documents and his concealment of them came to light in the course of a months-long federal government investigation focused on the status of presidential records taken from the White House.
On Monday morning, FBI agents and technicians arrived at Donald Trump’s Florida residence and presented the former president’s lawyers with a search warrant to retrieve top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago. According to Trump spokesmen, FBI investigators have focused on three rooms in the residence. Trump said the FBI broke into at least one of his safes, possibly in Trump’s office or bedroom, where it was found.
The information about the location of the documents, Newsweek previously reported, came from a confidential human source, possibly someone in the Trump camp. While not disclosing any details of the investigation, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that the Justice Department wants the search warrant and inventory of property taken from Mar-a-Lago released from court. This request must be approved – formally, not just in public statements – by Donald Trump.
Given the political storm that has fueled the Mar-a-Lago search, questions about the documents are critical. If they were merely “routine,” as Trump insists, then the search would be seen as politically motivated. The furor could be quelled if the documents are indeed revealed to be top secret and sensitive and the Justice Department can prove the former president kept them with no intention of returning them. The public may conclude that the search is valid and necessary.
The road to the Mar-a-Lago search began 18 months ago during the transition from the Trump administration to the Biden administration. In inventorying the presidential records, the National Archives and Archives Administration concluded that there were additional documents that were in Donald Trump’s possession that were “presidential records” and not personal documents and therefore should be returned to the archives .
Months of negotiations followed, and in January 2022, 15 boxes of such boxes were handed over to the Archives. This collection has led to further suspicions that the Trump camp still owns more. Federal investigators began interviewing Trump from White House and Mar-a-Lago officials to determine what was moved. Those interviews and a broader investigation overseen by a U.S. attorney led to a grand jury subpoena served on Trump in late May to produce specific documents.
According to John Soloman, a Just the News journalist who also served as one of Donald Trump’s liaisons to the National Archives, the subpoena requires all other documents in Trump’s possession with any classification markings, even if they include photos of foreign leaders. correspondence or memorabilia from his presidency.
On June 3, three FBI special agents and a senior Department of Justice official visited Mar-a-Lago to discuss any additional documents in response to the subpoena. The visiting officials were shown the basement storage room where White House documents were kept and, in compliance with the subpoena, were left with “a small number of documents,” according to Soloman. The documents were marked “Top Secret” and were separated, according to people familiar with the investigation. Trump and his spokesmen say the visit was cordial and that the Trump camp was fully cooperative.
Since the June visit, according to the Trump camp, communications with investigators have been suspended until agents showed up Monday to execute the search warrant. According to people familiar with the search, the decision to escalate the matter to a surprise search came because investigators concluded there were additional documents at Mar-a-Lago — documents so sensitive they had to be withdrawn to protect national security.
The search warrant was approved by a Florida magistrate on Friday, August 5, and three days later the FBI showed up at Mar-a-Lago to conduct the search. About 12 additional boxes of records were taken out. The FBI made an inventory of what was taken and left behind a two-page inventory with Trump’s lawyers.
After the search, the Trump camp insisted that President Trump had the right to declassify information and thus none of the records were classified. Kash Patel, a loyal Trump supporter who has served in intelligence and defense positions in the administration (and who also identifies as one of Donald Trump’s National Archives representatives), told the Just The News podcast that Trump is “the ultimate arbiter ‘ of classifying a document and thus there could be no infringement.
That characterization is incorrect, experts say, because documents that are covered by law and not classified under the president’s executive order cannot be classified or declassified by the president. This includes nuclear secrets (under the Atomic Energy Act) and documents that could identify CIA employees or agents (under the Intelligence Identity Protection Act of 1982). The Washington Post reported that the documents sought at Mar-a-Lago were related to nuclear weapons.
This Act designates as CIA sources “an individual, other than a citizen of the United States, whose past or present intelligence relationship with the United States is classified information and who is a current or former agent of, or a current or former informant or source of operational assistance to intelligence agency.”
Bill Leonard, who as head of the Office of Information Security Oversight for six years in the Bush administration oversaw this system, makes a clear distinction between information that is classified under Article 2 of the president’s constitutional authority as commander-in-chief and that which are classified by law as nuclear secrets and intelligence sources and methods relating to human agents. “This kind of information and other sensitive intelligence sources and methods are protected under the law, not necessarily protected under the president’s unilateral classification authority,” Leonard told the Grid this week. “So even a sitting president does not have full, unfettered authority to declare information unclassified at will. Of course, a former president does not have the authority to declassify any information.”
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