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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recovered documents during its August 8 raid on the Mar-a-Lago, Florida home of former President Donald Trump relating to an unnamed foreign government military defenses as well as its nuclear capabilities, The Washington Post quoted people familiar with the matter.
Did Trump declassify documents on a foreign nation's nuclear capabilities?
Mr. Trump
had claimed that he had declassified all the documents before removing them
from the White House during his exit. The implication of the former president’s
claims is that he obviously declassified documents relating to the nuclear
secrets and capabilities of a foreign government.
What documents were seized in Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate by FBI agents?
Some of the
documents seized include “top secret” records that are only accessible by the
president, some high ranking members of his Cabinet, or a near Cabinet level
official and only they could authorize other government officials to know
details of the special access programs, The Washington Post quoted people
familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss
sensitive details of an ongoing investigation.
Documents
relating to such highly classified operations require special clearances on a
need-to-know basis, other than top secret clearance, according to The
Washington Post. Some special-access programs can only allow a couple dozen
government personnel to know of an operation’s existence. Records relating to
such programs are kept under lock and key in a secure compartmented information
facility, with a designated control officer to keep careful tabs on their
location, according to The Washington Post.
The FBI
recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago with 184 in a set
of 15 boxes initially sent to the National Archives and Records Administration
in January, while 38 more were handed over by a Trump lawyer to investigators
in June and more than 100 additional documents recovered after a court
authorized the FBI to search the former president’s Palm Beach estate on August
8, The Washington Post reported.
Did Trump receive a subpoena to return classified documents by a grand jury?
On May 11, a
grand jury subpoena requested the return of “all documents or writings in the
custody or control of Donald J. Trump and/or the Office of Donald J. Trump
bearing classification markings,” including “Top Secret,” and the lesser
categories of “Secret” and “Confidential,” according to The Washington Post.
The subpoena
listed over two dozen sub-classifications of documents, including “S/FRD,” and
abbreviation for “Formerly Restricted Data,” reserved for information that
relates primarily to the military use of nuclear weapons, The Washington Post
reported. But the term “formerly” does not mean the information is no longer
secret, according to the newspaper.
Where there extremely restricted records in Mar-a-Lago?
A person
familiar with the search told The Washington Post that investigators became alarmed
when they discovered extremely restricted records when they reviewed documents
removed from Trump’s estate. Such documents are not accessible by some of the
most senior national security officials in the Biden administration.
Some of the 100
classified documents seized in August were marked “HCS,” a category of highly
classified government information that refers to “HUMINT Control Systems,” are
systems used to protect intelligence gathered from secret human sources, The
Washington Post cited 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. Some of the materials were not meant to be shared with a foreign
government.
Despite
being equipped with these facts, the former president who should know better
took the sensitive documents to his ever busy country club that receives visitors
periodically.