WASHINGTON, Aug 13 (Reuters) – The seizure of classified U.S. government documents from Donald Trump’s sprawling Mar-a-Lago retreat underscores the continuing national security concerns posed by the former president and the home he called the Winter White House. some security experts say.
Trump is under federal investigation for possible violations of the Espionage Act, which makes it illegal to spy for another country or misuse U.S. defense information, including sharing it with people not authorized to receive it, a search warrant shows. Read more
As president, Trump sometimes shares information regardless of its sensitivity. Early in his presidency, he spontaneously gave top-secret information to the Russian foreign minister about a planned Islamic State operation while in the Oval Office, U.S. officials said at the time.
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But it was at Mar-a-Lago, where wealthy members and individuals attended weddings and fund-raising dinners frolicking on the cool oceanfront patio, that American intelligence seemed particularly at risk. While the Secret Service provided physical security at the venue while Trump was president and beyond, they are not responsible for vetting guests or members.
The DOJ search warrant raises national security concerns, former DOJ official Mary McCord said.
“Clearly they thought it was very serious to get these materials back into a protected space,” McCord said. “Even the mere retention of highly classified documents in improper storage — especially given Mar-a-Lago, the foreign visitors there, and others who may have ties to foreign governments and foreign agents — poses a significant threat to national security.”
Trump, in a statement on his social media platform, said the tapes had been “declassified” and placed in “secure storage.”
However, McCord said he did not see “a plausible argument that he made a conscious decision for each of them to declassify them before he left.” After he left office, she said he had no authority to declassify information.
Monday’s seizure by FBI agents of multiple sets of documents and dozens of boxes, including US defense information and a reference to the “French president,” presents a frightening scenario for intelligence professionals.
U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping and first lady Peng Liyuan at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., April 6, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File photo
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“It’s a nightmare environment for carefully handling highly classified information,” said a former US intelligence officer. “It’s just a nightmare.”
The DOJ has not provided specific information about how and where the documents and photos were stored, but the club’s general vulnerabilities are well documented.
In a famous example, Trump snuggled in 2017 with then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at an outdoor dinner table while guests milled around nearby, listening and snapping photos they later tweeted.
The dinner was interrupted by a North Korean missile test, and guests listened as Trump and Abe pondered what to say in response. After making the statement, Trump stopped by a wedding reception at the club.
“What we saw was that Trump was so lax on security that he had a sensitive meeting on a potentially military topic where non-US government personnel could be watching and filming,” said Mark Zeid, a lawyer who specializes in national security cases. “It would be easy if someone also had a device to hear and record what Trump said.”
White House aides set up a secure room at Mar-a-Lago for sensitive discussions. It was there that Trump decided to launch airstrikes against Syria for using chemical weapons in April 2017.
Trump moved the decision to dinner with visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping. Over a dessert of chocolate cake, Trump briefed Xi on the airstrikes.
In 2019, a Chinese woman who passed through checkpoints at the club carrying a flash drive encoded with “malware” was arrested for entering a restricted facility and making false statements to officials, authorities said at the time.
Then-White House chief of staff John Kelly made efforts to try to limit who had access to Trump at Mar-a-Lago, but the effort failed when Trump refused to cooperate, aides said at the time.
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Reporting by Steve Holland and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Heather Timmons and William Mallard
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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