A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material stashed in the Florida property.
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.
Documents about such highly classified operations require special clearances on a need-to-know basis, not just top-secret clearance. Some special-access programs can have as few as a couple dozen government personnel authorized to know of an operation’s existence. Records that deal with such programs are kept under lock and key, almost always in a secure compartmented information facility, with a designated control officer to keep careful tabs on their location.
And before the rightwingers start their bullshit, no the President can not just declare these documents unclassified.
raven
yo
Elizabelle
Um, WaterGirl already has a post up about this. But: good to hear you are incensed, too.
Hi raven. Plz give Artie a pat for me.
Spanky
@Elizabelle: Yeah, but it’s his blog and he can blog if he wants to.
I’m going back downstairs.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Biden takes inappropriate showers with his daughter according to red state. Both sides have a morality problem.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and still less a former president
John Cole
@Elizabelle: She stepped on me I had a post in queue set for 9:30.
Spanky
@Old Dan and Little Ann: Sounds like that’s a response to
Spanky
And now Anne Laurie’s got a post up on the topic.
raven
@Elizabelle: On my way to the rack, I’ll do it!
gwangung
Given the news, that the blog is Bigfoot City tonight is not particularly surprising.
Martin
You can’t help but notice that the Trump WH has a worse classified document tracking system than the average office birthday card hand-around. In 25 years we never misplaced a birthday card. Somehow the WH was unaware this document went walkabout.
Ken
@Spanky: There is truly no end to the bounties of
the capitalist systemthis nearly top-10000 blog.MisterForkbeard
@Martin: This should tell you how nonfunctional the Trump White House was, yeah. If this wasn’t immediately on the radar it’s because of a lot other stuff was potentilly missing.
Grumpy Old Railroader
BJ Alumni Cheryl Rofer, expert on glowing material, also has a post up on this subject over at LGM
catclub
yeah, there should be custodians, each asking about every document in their inventory. Why the Fuck wasn’t there?
Grumpy Old Railroader
I would be shocked if there is no chain of custody log. I mean, that is just SOP for so many things.
WaterGirl
@Grumpy Old Railroader: I was thinking the same thing. Surely with a document like that they know who did the equivalent of checking it out of the library.
Mike in NC
The pigfucker once asked what is the point of having nuclear weapons if you don’t want to use them?
Grumpy Old Railroader
Once the IG gets involved, some heads will roll, if not brought up on charges
WaterGirl
@Grumpy Old Railroader: Is this one of the corrupt AGs? Hopefully not.
Steeplejack
@Spanky:
No, the “inappropriate showers” thing has been around for a while.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC:
Yes. The Orange Shitstain also asked why Japan and Saudi Arabia don’t have nuclear weapons.
grumbles
Amazing how he can always sink lower – I thought he was being an idiot, not compiling a prospect list.
brantl
@grumbles: Likeliest? It’s both.