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You are here: Home / Politics / National Security / Don’t Worry About the Documents About Foreign Nations and Their Nuclear Capabilities, Nothing To See Here

Don’t Worry About the Documents About Foreign Nations and Their Nuclear Capabilities, Nothing To See Here

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Material on foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

Some seized documents were so closely held, only the president, a Cabinet-level or near-Cabinet level official could authorize others to know.

Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special-access programs, according to people familiar with the search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive details of an ongoing investigation.

And this:

It was in this last batch of government secrets, the people familiar with the matter said, that the information about a foreign government’s nuclear-defense readiness was found. These people did not identify the foreign government in question, say where at Mar-a-Lago the document was found or offer additional details about one of the Justice Department’s most sensitive national security investigations.

And this:

Investigators grew alarmed, according to one person familiar with the search, as they began to review documents retrieved from the club’s storage closet, Trump’s residence and his office in August. The team soon came upon records that are extremely restricted, so much so that even some of the senior-most national security officials in the Biden administration weren’t authorized to review them. One government filing alluded to this information when it noted that counterintelligence FBI agents and prosecutors investigating the Mar-a-Lago documents were not authorized at first to review some of the material seized.

Click here for the gift article at the Wasington Post.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

83Comments

  2. 2.

    Martin

    Warming up to the idea of Trump being a neighbor of Robert Hanssen at ADX Florence.

    Is there any reason to possess such a document except to sell it to a foreign power?

  4. 4.

    Elizabelle

    @Martin:   Mags Haberman, and others, are trying as hard as they can to convince you taking them is just a Trump personality quirk.

    Poor dear.  He hasn’t gotten over no longer being in the White House.

    Talk about gaslighting.  (Off to find the article from the FTF NY Times.  It was that bad.)

  5. 5.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    Ricki Tarr : I’ve got a story to tell you. It’s all about spies. And if it’s true – which I think it is – you boys are gonna need a whole new organisation, right?

    Everything you need to know about espionage is in Tinker, Tailor.

  7. 7.

    Spanky

    @Baud: Oh, it’s Russia, and Vlad was very glad to get info on what we know.

    Hanging or the chair, I’m OK with either one.

  8. 8.

    Ken

    @Martin: Is there any reason to possess such a document except to sell it to a foreign power?

    I think “for his memoirs” was floated recently, but got laughed down — for the idea that classified information could go into a memoir, not for the (equally risible) idea that TFG could write a book.

  12. 12.

    SpaceUnit

    The steady drip of damning facts being released in the name of transparency seems to me a very effective strategy.  Trump wants this to play out in the court of public opinion and the DOJ is here for it.

  14. 14.

    prostratedragon

    I really dislike being made to suppress fantasies of crushing people under slabs on a daily basis.  It’s enervating.

  15. 15.

    Cacti

    @Elizabelle: Reminds me of their other recent gem, saying not to read too much into the surge of women voter registrations, because it could be MAGA women rejoicing in their lack of rights, post-Dobbs.

  16. 16.

    raven

    Mulvaney is on CNN and says TFG would only have the documents to protect  himself from the corrupt FBI.

  18. 18.

    trollhattan

    USWNT signed the collective bargaining agreement tonight guaranteeing equal between the men’s and women’s national soccer teams.

    ‘Bout time, considering the women have 100% of the nation’s World Cup and Olympics medals. LFG!

  19. 19.

    Captain C

    I wonder if this story coming out right now is at least in part pushback against that idiot Trumpist judge who thinks she can ignore the law.

  20. 20.

    Ken

    These people did not identify the foreign government in question, say where at Mar-a-Lago the document was found or offer additional details

    Leaving us in prime “it would be irresponsible not to speculate” territory.  I’ll guess:

    1. Foreign government — Israel
    2. Where found — In an unsealed box, in an unlocked storage room, next to the public restrooms
    3. Additional details — The security cover was missing, but it had been tucked into a bar menu with a flyer for half-price happy hour mozzarella sticks
  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    Jesus Fucking Himself!

    I didn’t have “Stealing foreign power’s nuclear capability documents” on my Kremlin’s Orange Fascist Shitstain bingo card.

    I again congratulate the stupid, shithead children.

  23. 23.

    Captain C

    @raven: “So then, Mick, how are top nuclear defense secrets supposed to do that? Are you suggesting blackmail and hostage-taking are reasonable for TFG to do, or is treason OK for all Republicans?”

  25. 25.

    dmsilev

    So, the fact that this story is in the Post today is the intelligence community preemptively sending a message to the appeals court that “the lunatic judge who is trying to protect TFG is way the fuck out of line; stop this ASAP.”?

  29. 29.

    Splitting Image

    @Baud:

    Israel or Russia?

    I think it’s very likely Trump stole intelligence on Russia’s nukes, but it’s also likely that he already handed everything he had over to Putin.

    Israel seems the likeliest guess to me. Info on their program would be the juiciest item on the auction list.

  32. 32.

    Scout211

    But, but, but, isn’t the most important thing the risk of reputational harm to our poor, mistreated F-POTUS? Who will think of the real victim here, people?

  34. 34.

    mrmoshpotato

    @prostratedragon:

    I really dislike being made to suppress fantasies of crushing people under slabs on a daily basis. It’s enervating. 

    I understand, but the amendment banning cruel and unusual punishment probably would come into play.

  35. 35.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Spanky: ​
     

    Hanging or the chair, I’m OK with either one.

    Neither of them lasts long enough.

    I want him in Supermax for the rest of his life with no electronic contact with the outside world, and I want him to get such topnotch medical care while in prison that he lives to age 100.

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    Trying to make this a free article.  From August 18; updated August 26.

    MAR-A-LAGO MEMO
    Another Trump Mystery: Why Did He Resist Returning the Government’s Documents?

    As with so much else with the former president, there is not one easy answer as to why he refused and ignited a legal firestorm. But here are some possibilities.

    For four years, … Trump treated the federal government and the political apparatus operating in his name as an extension of his private real estate company.

    It all belonged to him, he felt, melded together into a Trump brand that he had been nurturing for decades.

    “My generals,” he repeatedly said of the active-duty and retired military leaders who filled his government. “My money,” he often called the cash he raised through his campaign or for the Republican National Committee. “My Kevin,” he said of Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader.

    And White House documents?

    “They’re mine,” three of Mr. Trump’s advisers said that he stated repeatedly when he was urged to return boxes of documents …

    …. The question, as with so much else around Mr. Trump, is why? Why did he insist on refusing to turn over government papers that by law did not belong to him, igniting another legal conflagration? As with so much else related to Mr. Trump, there is not one easy answer.

    Here are the main possibilities. [At least, the ones the FTF NY Times is willing to consider, in print:]

    Exciting documents [using the NY Times’ highlighting]

    Mr. Trump, a pack rat who for decades showed off knickknacks in his overstuffed Trump Tower office — including a giant shoe that once belonged to the basketball player Shaquille O’Neal — treated the nation’s secrets as similar trinkets to brandish. White House aides described how excited he was to show off all the material he had access to, including letters from the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which he routinely waved at visitors, alarming his advisers.

    ‘L’état, c’est moi’

    … Mr. Trump embodied Louis XIV’s phrase “L’état, c’est moi,” or “I am the state,” his own advisers and several outside observers said.

    From lawyer Mark S. Zaid: “He seems to honestly believe that everything he touches belongs to him, and that includes government documents that might be classified.”

    Ripping up paper

    Although Trump White House officials were warned about the proper handling of sensitive material, aides said Mr. Trump had little interest in the security of government documents or protocols to keep them protected.

    Early on, Mr. Trump became known among his staff as a hoarder who threw all manner of paper — sensitive material, news clips and various other items — into cardboard boxes that a valet or other personal aide would cart around with him wherever he went.

    Mr. Trump repeatedly had material sent up to the White House residence, and it was not always clear what happened to it. He sometimes asked to keep material after his intelligence briefings, but aides said he was so uninterested in the paperwork during the briefings themselves that they never understood what he wanted it for. [!!!]

    He also had a habit of ripping up paper, from routine documents to classified material, and leaving the pieces strewn around the floor or in a trash can. Officials would have to rummage through the shreds and tape them back together to recreate the documents in order to store them as required under the Presidential Records Act.

    On some occasions, Mr. Trump would rip up documents — some with his handwriting on them — and throw the pieces in a toilet, which occasionally clogged the pipes in the White House. He did the same thing on at least two foreign trips, former officials said.

    [We are probably lucky that Trump does not smoke. May not have matches at the ready. Someone else already wondered at his clogging up the plumbing when the White House has so many fireplaces.]

    Personal information

    Mr. Trump, Mr. Bolton said, never told him he planned to take a document and use it for something beyond its value as a memento.

    It was “sort of whatever he wants to grab for whatever reason,” Mr. Bolton said. “He may not even fully appreciate” precisely why he did certain things.

    But officials worried, particularly about the documents falling into the wrong hands.

    Other advisers wondered if Mr. Trump kept some documents because they contained details about people he knew.

    Among the items that presidents are given on overseas trips are biographies of foreign leaders, a former administration official said. One version is unclassified and fairly routine. But the other is classified and can contain numerous personal details.

    One of the files the F.B.I. seized at Mar-a-Lago was marked “info re: President of France,” about Emmanuel Macron.

    [Aha. Maggs Haberman did broach the possibility of nefarious use. In her very last paragraphs. And: the next sentence in the article — about Macron — was the last. Reader, you figure it out!  I think it’s entirely possible the last paragraphs were not in the original article.  The reader commenters really got after Access Maggie for her gaslighting treatment of the situation.]

  43. 43.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Martin: Maybe we’re just butting our heads against a wall when we try to see sense in having those docs in his retirement home. Trying to follow what he says breaks my brain. Maybe trying to make sense of what he does breaks it too.

  52. 52.

    dexwood

    @raven: Too bad Mulvaney has never been properly introduced to the persuasive attributes of a Louisville Slugger. His sniveling countenance might appear more in tune with things. Not advocating violence here, venting because so many weasels licking trump’s toes are still such despicable liars, ghouls, traitors, and fools.

  53. 53.

    dmsilev

    @Timill: Cruel, yes, but not all that unusual…

    …for the Roman Empire. I guess one could argue that enough of our legal heritage is derived from Roman law that someone like Alito would approve.

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    @Spanky: No, I apparently pre-stomped Cole by putting this up as he was writing his.  (which I hadn’t realized.  I did look for a post before I put mine up.)

    So go read Cole’s post, please.

  60. 60.

    Scout211

    Rolling Stone   Headline just now:

    Report: Trump Stored Another Country’s Nuclear Secrets at Fucking Mar-a-Lago

     

    The bombshell report follows a previous claim published by the Post that disclosed federal agents were specifically instructed to look for nuclear-related materialsduring the Mar-a-Lago raid. Trump administration sources previously claimed highly sensitive intelligence documents, such as intercepted communications made by foreign leaders, were “routinely mishandled” by the former president and were often viewed by individuals who lacked proper government clearance to do so. Trump responded to the article in a characteristically rambling post on his Truth Social platform, writing off the claim as yet another partisan-driven attack on his character. “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 much more,” he wrote. “Planting information anyone? Reminds me of a Christofer Steele Dossier!”

  61. 61.

    geg6

    Iran’s nukes that he gave MBS?  That makes sense to me.  Which means it’s probably wrong because…well…Cheetolini.

  62. 62.

    gene108

    @dmsilev:

    So, the fact that this story is in the Post today is the intelligence community preemptively sending a message to the appeals court that “the lunatic judge who is trying to protect TFG is way the fuck out of line; stop this ASAP.”?

    I think the message is there’s no way in hell you, Judge Cannon, are going to find a Special Master with the security clearance needed to look at all the material, who will be acceptable to both parties.

  65. 65.

    catclub

    @trollhattan: ​
     

    They can put butts in seats and draw the TV audience. Because they’re the best on the planet.

    I bet the Jan 6 committee is trying to figure out how to get the fact that nuclear secrets were in the documents he stole, and put it on TV. I know I am trying to.

  66. 66.

    Spanky

    @Scout211:

    Report: Trump Stored Another Country’s Nuclear Secrets at Fucking Mar-a-Lago

    It pleases me that that is the actual headline, and you didn’t edit it.

  69. 69.

    gene108

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Put him in a Supermax, with a camera in his cell and people can pay to watch the camera’s feed for a duration. A few bucks to watch him suffer for a few minutes.

  71. 71.

    Elizabelle

    I hope the FBI is searching all of Trump’s other properties. Although:  he’s had time to destroy evidence, since the first warrant was executed.

  73. 73.

    Captain C

    @lowtechcyclist: I would settle for a nice long stint in the Scrimshaw Suit from the Revelation Space series.

    Spoiler coming:

     

     

     

     

     

    For those who haven’t read Alastair Reynolds’ works, it’s basically a human-sized sensory deprivation suit in which a psychotic starship owner locks up her enemies for years at a time, keeping them alive with zero stimulation.

  74. 74.

    prostratedragon

    @Elizabelle:  They might already have.  Consider that we know of this only because of TFG himself. How many district court judges did he appoint in NY and NJ?

  75. 75.

    lgerard

    I’m thinking that the nuclear material is about North Korea.  I think he loves Kim more then Putin.  Kim has better parades and more obsequious  toadies.

  76. 76.

    Captain C

    What are the chances if, say Jared sold these nuclear secrets to the enemy of whoever they were about, that he commits a Russian-style suicide, like putting two rounds in the back of his own head before falling from a balcony and landing 20 or 30 feet outwards from the building?  This sort of thing gets the people involved killed if they are indiscreet enough to get caught.

  77. 77.

    ian

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I didn’t have “Stealing foreign power’s nuclear capability documents” on my Kremlin’s Orange Fascist Shitstain bingo card.

    And that is why you will not win the prize, while MBS gets to see Israel or Iran’s dirty nuclear laundry.

    Next time, buy the 2 billion dollar bingo card.

  78. 78.

    VOR

    This would explain some of the classification marks indicating both human sources and satellite imagery. Of course the Intelligence community would be carefully monitoring another countries nuclear program.

    But think of another possibility: information on a clandestine program at a country not currently a known nuclear power. The AQ Khan network talked to a lot of countries.

  80. 80.

    Chris Johnson

    @Baud: Yes. (or more like, I think Donald is 100% Russia Russia Russia, but others in his family like the odious Jared are clearly really interested in selling stuff to the Saudis et al.) It’s Donald who is entirely owned by Putin. Some of the others are fool enough to think they can do side deals.

  81. 81.

    Citizen Alan

    @Ken:  I’d never actually read any Fu Manchu novels.  But I can’t help wondering whether George Orwell had read that  passage prior to writing 1984.

  83. 83.

    Geminid

    Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons, at least not yet. Russia, China, France, the UK, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea have them. A US report on any one of these would be worth a lot of money to multiple countries including the nation reported on. Although a report on North Korea’s program might not fetch so high a price.

    This leak was something of a power play. I can only guess the level at which it was authorized, but I think that whoever authorized it did the right thing.

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