Nuclear secrets at Trump residence ‘a gamechanger’The reported discovery of information about a foreign nation’s nuclear secrets in materials found at Donald Trump’s private residence is horrifying intelligence experts.
Federal agents seized the document during their search of Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s Palm Beach mansion in Florida, last month, the Washington Post reported. It appears to confirm officials’ worst fears about the nature of the intelligence he should have returned to the National Archives.
Shawn Turner, former director of communications for US national intelligence, was searing in his criticism during an interview Wednesday on CNN’s New Day:
The fact we now know there were highly classified, restricted access documents about another country’s nuclear defense capabilities stored at Mar-a-Lago is a gamechanger with regard to the risk it poses to our national security.
That these documents may have been seen by unauthorized personnel … tells individuals what our capabilities are with regard to intelligence collection related to nuclear programs.
More important is it identifies or exposes our gaps with regard to intelligence collection.
The bottom line is others are going to look at this information and determine what we know and know, and they’re going to make decisions about their nuclear programs based on that information. And that is an extremely dangerous thing.
The Post’s reporting is only the latest twist in a weeks-long saga over the justice department’s investigation into his handling of classified materials after he left office in January 2021.
Trump, who is mulling another run for the presidency in 2024, attacked the department at a weekend rally where he called the FBI and DoJ “vicious monsters”.
Many others, including Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have defended the investigation into his retention of government records, saying that it posed a major national security risk.
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McCabe: FBI ‘absolutely had to go in’ to recover nuclear documentThe former deputy director of the FBI says federal agents “absolutely had to go in” to retrieve highly classified documents from Donald Trump’s private residence relating to the nuclear secrets of a foreign power.
Andrew McCabe, whom Trump fired in 2018 before the justice department reversed the decision last year, also said the reported discovery dispelled claims from the former president’s legal team that it had been openly negotiating the return of hoarded documents to the National Archives.
Andrew McCabe. Photograph: Alex Brandon/APMcCabe told CNN on Wednesday:
The seriousness of the documents eliminates any question about whether or not the department and the FBI actually had to go in with a search, which at the time was perceived as this overly aggressive move taken out of the blue, without any sort of appropriate wind up.
Of course, we now know that that’s not true. We know that the parties were not negotiating in good faith. We know that the folks on the Trump team were misleading the government… [and] resisted the return of these documents for basically a year and a half.
Knowing what was in there, they absolutely have to go in and recover this material. It’s essential to national security.
Hugo Lowell
Top former Trump strategist Steve Bannon is expected to be indicted on Thursday on state fraud charges connected to his role in a fundraising scheme to build a border wall, according to two sources familiar with the matter, years after he received a presidential pardon in the federal case.
The expected move by the Manhattan district attorney’s office was quietly communicated to Bannon in recent days, the sources said of the sealed indictment, and indicated the state charges will likely mirror the federal case in which he was pardoned.
Steve Bannon. Photograph: Alex Brandon/APBannon and three others were charged in that case by federal prosecutors in Manhattan with falsely claiming that they would not take compensation in the private “We Build the Wall” fundraising effort to underwrite part of the construction of the wall on the US-Mexico border.
The architect of Trump’s 2016 election campaign and later White House adviser was accused of personally taking more than $1m from what people had donated to the fundraising push that promised to secure funding in order to ensure the completion of the border wall.
Bannon – alongside disabled veteran Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea – raised more than $25m in the online crowdfunding effort, which also promised donors that all of the proceeds would go towards constructing the wall.
Though Bannon pleaded not guilty to the federal charges in August 2020, two others, Kolfage and Badolato, pleaded guilty to siphoning off money from the scheme and defrauding others for their own gain.
Bannon received a last-minute pardon in the final days of the Trump administration that expunged the federal indictment. But presidential pardons do not apply to state-level charges.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office started examining whether to pursue a case against Bannon almost immediately after he received the pardon, one source with knowledge of the matter said, and several close Bannon allies were subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in recent months.
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Experts: ‘No good way’ for Trump to spin nuclear revelationsDonald Trump’s legal jeopardy could be heightened by the reported discovery of a foreign nation’s nuclear secrets among his hoard of improperly retained classified materials, some experts believe.
Michael Moore, former US attorney for Georgia, was asked on CNN if the finding could provide the justice department – which is conducting a criminal investigation into the former president’s handling of secret documents – with more evidence to bring charges:
I really think that’s probably the case. The documents that they had dealing with national defense may have been enough as it was under the Espionage Act, [which] doesn’t really require classified materials to be held and stolen. It [only] required defense information.
This information about nuclear capabilities and defense is particularly troubling to me, and there’s no good way to spin it for the [ex]-president. The three blind mice would say that he’s in trouble with this at this point.
Conversely, Moore added, the apparent leaking to the media about the content of the papers seized by the FBI in their search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida last month had “justified” one aspect of his legal defense:
I’m worried about is how the news is getting information about what the documents are. It seems to me that Trump’s request for a special master is justified, because somebody somewhere is leaking information about the specifics of these highly classified, highly sensitive documents.
That may change the dynamics, not just on the criminal side, but also the legal side.
Senior Democrats, intelligence experts and retired senior military officers are among those offering thoughts this morning on the alleged discovery of a foreign power’s nuclear secrets at Donald Trump’s Florida residence.
Adam Schiff, representative for California and chair of the House intelligence committee:
New reporting that Trump had highly classified information, including on foreign nuclear programs.
If true, it raises yet more questions.
Why would Trump take them to Mar-a-Lago?
Why did he refuse to return them?
The investigation must continue uninterrupted and unimpeded.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) September 7, 2022 Mark Hertling, retired US Army lieutenant general and national security analyst:
NB (note bene): this is just the beginning…and it’s gonna get much, much worse.
Special Access Programs (SAP), TS/SCI, NOFORN…some of our most closely guarded secrets.
Yeah, this is more than a “storage problem,” @marcorubio t.co/NtCzAY3L8I
— Mark Hertling (@MarkHertling) September 7, 2022 Democratic congressman for California, Ted Lieu:
Donald Trump was, and remains, a U.S. national security disaster.
Anyone else in America holding highly classified nuclear information at their residence would have been arrested and indicted. And Trump as ex-President doesn’t even have a security clearance. t.co/HtfX27ro9x
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) September 7, 2022 John W Dean, White House counsel for Richard Nixon during Watergate crisis:
Donald Trump is a serious threat to the national security of the United States…
— John W. Dean (@JohnWDean) September 7, 2022 Donald Trump doesn’t seem too concerned that information about a foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities was reportedly found at his Florida mansion.
The former president, according to a post on his troubled Truth Social network this morning, would seem to indicate he’s more worried by federal agents having sight of his medical records.
“At least they’ll see that I’m very healthy, an absolutely perfect physical specimen!” wrote Trump, who has a questionable history at best over claims about his weight and overall health.
Donald Trump. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA“Not only did the FBI steal my Passports in the FBI Raid and Break-In of my home, Mar-a-Lago, but it has just been learned through court filings that they also improperly took my complete and highly confidential medical file and history, with all the bells and whistles.
“Plus personal Tax Records (Illegal to take), and lawyer/client/privileged information, a definite NO, NO. Days of the Soviet Union!
Nuclear secrets at Trump residence ‘a gamechanger’The reported discovery of information about a foreign nation’s nuclear secrets in materials found at Donald Trump’s private residence is horrifying intelligence experts.
Federal agents seized the document during their search of Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s Palm Beach mansion in Florida, last month, the Washington Post reported. It appears to confirm officials’ worst fears about the nature of the intelligence he should have returned to the National Archives.
Shawn Turner, former director of communications for US national intelligence, was searing in his criticism during an interview Wednesday on CNN’s New Day:
The fact we now know there were highly classified, restricted access documents about another country’s nuclear defense capabilities stored at Mar-a-Lago is a gamechanger with regard to the risk it poses to our national security.
That these documents may have been seen by unauthorized personnel … tells individuals what our capabilities are with regard to intelligence collection related to nuclear programs.
More important is it identifies or exposes our gaps with regard to intelligence collection.
The bottom line is others are going to look at this information and determine what we know and know, and they’re going to make decisions about their nuclear programs based on that information. And that is an extremely dangerous thing.
The Post’s reporting is only the latest twist in a weeks-long saga over the justice department’s investigation into his handling of classified materials after he left office in January 2021.
Trump, who is mulling another run for the presidency in 2024, attacked the department at a weekend rally where he called the FBI and DoJ “vicious monsters”.
Many others, including Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have defended the investigation into his retention of government records, saying that it posed a major national security risk.
Read more:
Good morning US politics blog readers! Wednesday begins with another extraordinary development in the saga of Donald Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Florida residence.
Among the papers found by the FBI during a search last month was one describing a foreign government’s nuclear capabilities, the Washington Post reported. It would appear to confirm security officials’ worst fears about the nature of the material the former president refused to hand back to the National Archives.
We’ll be watching for reaction.
There’s also increasing scrutiny and growing criticism of the judge in the case, Trump appointee Aileen Cannon, who made the decision to appoint an independent special master to review the evidence in the justice department’s inquiry.
Some legal scholars question the legitimacy of the unprecedented decision, saying it places Trump above the law. Bill Barr, Trump’s former attorney general, was more succinct, telling the New York Times: “It’s a crock of shit.”
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
Steve Bannon, Trump’s former senior strategist who is already awaiting sentencing for contempt of Congress after refusing to cooperate with the January 6 trial, is expected to be indicted on fraud charges relating to a fundraising scheme.
Barack and Michelle Obama return to the White House at 1.30pm for the unveiling of their official portraits, hosted by Joe and Jill Biden.
Victory by Geoff Diehl, a Trump-supporting election denier, in Massachusetts’ Republican primary could pave the way for an openly gay Democrat Maura Healy to become state governor in November’s midterms.
The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, is scheduled to deliver her daily briefing at 2.45pm.