NEW: A binder containing highly classified information about Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election has been reported missing pic.twitter.com/0crLGiYegY
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 15, 2023
Helluva story @CNN. Good work. I'm old enough to remember when Trump & his cult said Hillary Clinton must be locked up for mishandling emails. Here we have a trove of sensitive intel re Russia & sources and methods that went missing from the Trump WH!https://t.co/v9PBIk6nin
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) December 15, 2023
Per CNN, “The mystery of the missing binder: How a collection of raw Russian intelligence disappeared under Trump”:
A binder containing highly classified information related to Russian election interference went missing at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, raising alarms among intelligence officials that some of the most closely guarded national security secrets from the US and its allies could be exposed, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Its disappearance, which has not been previously reported, was so concerning that intelligence officials briefed Senate Intelligence Committee leaders last year about the missing materials and the government’s efforts to retrieve them, the sources said.
In the two-plus years since Trump left office, the missing intelligence does not appear to have been found.
The binder contained raw intelligence the US and its NATO allies collected on Russians and Russian agents, including sources and methods that informed the US government’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Trump win the 2016 election, sources tell CNN…
The binder was last seen at the White House during Trump’s final days in office. The former president had ordered it brought there so he could declassify a host of documents related to the FBI’s Russia investigation. Under the care of then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, the binder was scoured by Republican aides working to redact the most sensitive information so it could be declassified and released publicly.
The Russian intelligence was just a small part of the collection of documents in the binder, described as being 10 inches thick and containing reams of information about the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. But the raw intelligence on Russia was among its most sensitive classified materials, and top Trump administration officials repeatedly tried to block the former president from releasing the documents.
The day before leaving office, Trump issued an order declassifying most of the binder’s contents, setting off a flurry of activity in the final 48 hours of his presidency. Multiple copies of the redacted binder were created inside the White House, with plans to distribute them across Washington to Republicans in Congress and right-wing journalists.
Instead, copies initially sent out were frantically retrieved at the direction of White House lawyers demanding additional redactions…
Click the link for a whole lot of interactive information on the Who, Where, What of this intelligence heist.
"The binder was last seen at the White House during Trump’s final days in office. The former president had ordered it brought there so he could declassify a host of documents related to the FBI’s Russia investigation." https://t.co/OWvD20HMPL
— Clean Observer (@Hammbear2024) December 15, 2023
“All of it is playing into Putin hands…this is another example of why Donald Trump should never step foot in the Oval Office ever again”
-Former Pence aide @OliviaTroye on the Binder of classified material on Russia that went missing
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) December 16, 2023
Cassidy Hutchinson on the disappearance of the Crossfire Hurricane binder from the Trump White House:
“There was a mentality in the Trump administration of being frivolous with the country’s most sensitive national secrets. Do we really want people like that back in power?” pic.twitter.com/lFcCTSXQVf
— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) December 15, 2023
Today it was reported that a binder with top-secret information on Russian election interference vanished under Trump’s watch.
That classified information still hasn’t been found.
Demonstrating once again, Trump’s utter disregard for our national security.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2023
Mark Meadows pic.twitter.com/e2MhUoaMNH
— Voice of Reason (@raggapegs) December 16, 2023
“Don’t forget your binder of intelligence secrets and tell Vlad I said enjoy!” pic.twitter.com/lvpBcnfyDm
— Hoodlum 🇺🇸 (@NotHoodlum) December 15, 2023
dm
Filed next to the pee tape in Vlad’s desk drawer.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Thinking about that story after I read it yesterday, was there really any new information in it? Most of the facts seem to come from Cassidy Hutchinson’s book or testimony. Did somebody from the J6 Committee reach out to CNN and walk them through it? Really does seem like somebody’s giving Meadows a shove
Misamericanthrope
When are stories like this going to transform into questions about Lumpy’s intent with stealing documents? I hear little discussion about the distinct possibility that he sold our secrets. Jared’s 2B from the Saudis is certainly a red flag.
Scout211
John Solomon is one of the reporters who was supposed to publish all the top secret (declassified) evidence that proved Trump’s innocence. He and his staff saw the first version that had to be called back for further redaction. I don’t like thinking about what Solomon could do with what he saw in that binder. From the CNN report.
dc
Presidents can’t have the unilateral power to declassify anymore. That has to be changed and changed effectively.
Mike in NC
We should assume that all copies of this incriminating, highly-classified document went up in smoke in various White House fireplaces, though Meadows might have stashed one in a home safe in order to cut a deal with the feds.
Baud
I can’t believe someone who would take boxes of classified documents from the White House and store them in a bathroom in a Florida resort would do this.
Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It had sources and methods.
Mike in NC
@dc: It’s nuts that the entire Trump crime family were able to get instant security clearances, whereas us normal people had to undergo months of scrutiny, tedious paperwork, and extensive background investigations. Often a grueling polygraph examination was also a requirement (unless you enjoyed a close personal relationship with Vladimir Putin).
Tony Jay
What this should mean, minus any hyperbole whatsoever, is the US News Media spending every single day between now and when it’s found asking every single Republican they put a microphone in front of “Where Is The Secret Dossier?”
This is exactly the kind of easy to understand political scandal with a simple hook that they love. They should be able to coast through the whole pre-election season covering nothing else. They did something like that to Hillary Clinton based on next to nothing, they should do it to Trump over this much more obvious and sinister example of, at the very least, dangerously criminal negligence.
If they don’t. If they try to memory hole this under “Wasn’t the last Trump White House a whacky Place where crazy stuff just happened?” then feel free to burn the whole industry down.
Baud
@Tony Jay:
I’d be happy if more NYT-supporting libs woke up to the true nature of that publication.
Ned F
“What binder full of secrets? I thought it was Mitt’s binder full of women!”
Splitting Image
I met a Ricardian from an ancient land who said the fact that the binder was last seen during the Trump administration proves that it was still there when Biden took over. Therefore
Henry TudorJoe Biden must be the real culprit.Dangerman
Is this like a game of Clue?
I’ll go with Colonel Ketchup and Mustard, shredder, and shitter.
wmd
Trump likes dictators.
Trump demands loyalty and retribution against rats that hold him accountable.
Methods used in Crossfire Hurricane reveal some rats in Putin’s clandestine services.
Revealing them is punishing rats. Nevermind that it makes it harder to know what Putin is doing, Vlad’s a friend you admire and he’s always stroking your ego.
You can blame someone else and skate if anyone points out you’re hurting national security.
Chetan Murthy
@wmd:
“America’s national security is best served by dividing up the world between us and Russia [ed: China goes unmentioned, b/c today’s bogeyman]; how’m I gonna do that if I treat Vlad (who respects me, he really does) like an enemy? He’s a man I can do deals with — read about it in my great book _The Art of the Deal_ — which by the way is really underrated! It’s a masterpiece!”
Another Scott
“Call my press office for a comment,” – Marco, probably [/TedCruz]
Isn’t it about time for the periodic panic about CARAVANS from – I forget, Tierra Del Fuego?? – to start up again??
Grr…,
Scott.
Peke Daddy
Also, the bipartisan report from the Senate Intelligence Committee documenting many contacts between Trump campaign and Russia, not “what went wrong.”
VeniceRiley
It it’s not on Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN, it didn’t happen. That’s what Republicans believe.
Baud
@Another Scott:
kalakal
I reckon a big, manly man* with tears in his eyes took it.
*10 inches thick, you probably would have to be pretty strong to walk off with it
OzarkHillbilly
OK, this Grinch did and he did. Thank you Jill.
Jay
@Another Scott:
Isn’t this the time of year when Joseph and Mary hit the road?
Josie
@Tony Jay:
I just went to WaPo’s front page online and could find nothing on this item. I am so angry that they are totally ignoring it at this point. I hope Democratic leaders and the few responsible Republicans left will make noise about this and force the news people to cover it as it deserves.
Harrison Wesley
@kalakal: Not if you had a golf cart….
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Well they were in Hitler’s corner in the 1930s so this is not new for the publication.
eclare
@Jay:
Well played
JPL
@Josie: …but Biden is old.
One candidate leaked information that could have assets killed, and the other is old.
John Revolta
@Mike in NC: TBF, I remember Jared having to be vetted 2 or 3 times before he got his security clearance. Oh and he never got cleared through official channels………. in the end, Trump just said “He’s cleared”. BUT- it took awhile!
So there’s that.
zhena gogolia
@JPL: They’re both old!
JPL
@zhena gogolia: It would be nice if it were presented that way, but it’s not.
kalakal
@Harrison Wesley: Curses! I forgot.
Airforce One, Marine One, The Beast, and… The Roller Skate
Scout211
Hey, when Meadows flew down to Mar-a-Lago after J6 to make nice with Trump again (alternate reason reported recently: to cheer him up because Trump was so sad that he wasn’t even eating), did anyone see Meadows carry a Whole Foods grocery bag in with him?
Baud
@Scout211:
I think that was McCarthy.
Scout211
Oh shoot! You’re right.
danielx
Really does make one wonder how TFG’s balls ended up in Putin’s pocket.
wjca
I would love to believe they all went up in flames! That’s definitely the best case scenario.
But with these bozos, I have trouble believing they managed to do anything effectively and completely. Unless matbe by accident….?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Baud
I wonder what Trump’s opponents in the primary will do with this development.
SFAW
Treason? Or espionage? Hmm, tough choice.
schrodingers_cat
@danielx: Through NYC Russian mafia, crooked real estate dealings, trafficking women using his paegents IDK. These are a few of my guesses.
Tony Jay
@Baud:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his crossword depends on his not understanding it.”
@Josie:
Well, there’s your answer. If it’s not front page news tomorrow… would you like the number of my regular incendiary merchant? Very competitive rates for purchases in bulk.
smedley the uncertain
@Martin: Yep. Willfully exposing them alone verges on TREASON.
Lock Him up.
SFAW
@Baud:
Blame it on Hunter?
ETA: Or call for Joe’s impeachment, I guess.
SFAW
@smedley the uncertain:
Oh course, some of the local lawyers will say it can’t be Treason because we’re not in a shooting war with Russia.
bbleh
@danielx: @schrodingers_cat: I continue to think it’s money. Remember BOTH Dumber and Dumberer said the Trump Org was being financed with Russian money. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Vova kept — or got hold of, or simply ordered the production of — receipts, and has threatened (1) to make it all public and (2) MUCH more importantly from TIFG’s point of view, threatened to have the pipeline cut off entirely and immediately.
bbleh
Also, too, I think I read in … maybe the CNN story? somewhere … that not only were multiple copies made, but that some were disassembled, with the result that 2700 sheets of paper were floating around the WH singly and in various chunks. Apparently TIFG was very interested in cherry-picking as much information as possible out of them to leak to right-wing journalists and others.
That this was an utterly appalling way to treat national security information, especially information that might include or indicate the identities of sources, never mattered at all to TIFG or his people. They. Don’t. Care. And neither do their followers, for all their wrapping themselves in flags and shrieking hysterically about Teh Border. TIFG cares about himself — he’s even tossed Rudy overboard — and his followers care about some vague concept of Patriotism they can use to feel good about themselves and bash Libruls. Confront either of them with the facts of the case, and they’ll just get angry.
You don’t trust 10-year-olds with the credit cards and the passwords to the investment accounts. None of these people — not that WH and not a single one of his cultists — should be trusted with a single bit of sensitive NS information.
Geminid
@Mike in NC: I wonder how incriminating these documents were. The files were from years-old investigation that resulted in only a couple of prosecutions that did not reach Trump or his inner circle. And while I don’t know this for sure, my guess is that the FBI kept copies of the reports included in the binder, in which case there was no point in destroying it.
Trump seems to have believed this file could exonerate him. I doubt if it did, but Trump believed all kinds of stupid stuff and so did the people around him.
This raises an interesting question though: why was Trump still so obsessed with an investigation into his Russian ties that did not pan out? He never stopped complaining about it. An obvious answer would be that he knew he was guilty but lacked the self discipline to simply turn the page.
Regardless of whether the information was incriminating and who it incriminated, a hostile intelligence agency would want very much to get their hands on this binder. Conversely, it seems like whoever had it would have wanted to get rid of the hot potato..
mrmoshpotato
Why are these piles of shit reporting this? Why not broadcast archive footage of the orange shitstain’s empty podium?
I hope these piles of shit are happy with themselves.
Go fuck yourselves in Hell, CNN.
NotMax
@Geminid
Decent summary (including link within to redacted version).
artem1s
Were the contents worth $2B to the Saudi government?
Odie Hugh Manatee
I’m enjoying telling local conservatives that they will be voting for a dictator, topping it with “your own personal Hitler to lead the way“. Pisses them off but I just point them to the Republican party of Texas and their embrace of Nazis and white supremacists, asking them to explain that away. They sputter and deny, refusing to accept that their vote is to bring a dictator to power and end democracy in America. My neighbor is doing the same with his religious zealot parents who rabidly support Hair Furor, as is another friend of mine.
Rub this shit in their faces from now until November and afterward. Make them acknowledge that they want to elect someone who wants to shred the Constitution, that document that they have always claimed to honor and respect. And keep doing it, over and over, like they have always done with their endless whining about (insert grievance)
mrmoshpotato
@Another Scott:
CARAVANS of Messican PENGUINS from ANTARCTIC!
Baud
@mrmoshpotato: Cutest caravan ever.
Baud
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
👍
Another Scott
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Brilliant!
(via JoJoFromJerz)
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: Sources and methods. That’s the big issue here, I think.
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia:
🙄
Which one has sucked the Kremlin’s ass hole since at least 1987?
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Yes, the sources and methods information is what made this binder so sensitive, and so potentially valuable to a foreign intelligence service.
bbleh
@Geminid: why was Trump still so obsessed with an investigation into his Russian ties that did not pan out?
Several reasons IMO, two pretty much certain and others less so.
First and most certainly, because the story itself detracted from His Glorious Victory Which Was Entirely His. It suggested that He, Trump, might not have been capable of winning by himself, when he knows that he is the Mostest Winningest Evar. And I’m not exaggerating here — the guy is a major (“malignant”) narcissist, and anything that strikes at his self-esteem in any way occupies a hugely outsized part of his mind.
Second and equally certain, it strikes at his external (vs. self-) image. He cultivates the Mostest Winningest thing carefully, because it’s a major draw for his cultists and he knows it.
Third and less certain, it’s because he’s guilty and he knows it, and having been caught with his hand in the cookie-jar, he’s obsessed with denying it. “Nuh-uh! Did not!!”
And last, it’s denial out of sheer fear. Fear of Putin — whom he pretty clearly fears — fear of possible prosecution, and of course fear of electoral damage. Even if part of him knows that his denials are irrelevant to what Putin decides to do and that he’s got the Cult thoroughly bamboozled, there’s another part that’s huddled in some corner and worried to death, and all it can do is deny deny deny.
If this makes the guy sound sick, he clearly is, and if it makes him sound childish, well, he’s that too.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Haha
Suzanne
If the binders have been split apart and the documents within them are no longer compiled, do we know if any of them have been located?
What a fucken mess.
zhena gogolia
@mrmoshpotato: I just mean, they are not distinguished from each other by being old.
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia: Fair enough as much as I don’t like the comparison.
Kabiddle
Maybe in a plastic ziploc in one of the toilet tanks at Mar-A-Lago, put there after trolling around at 3am. My goodness who knows anymore.
catclub
I am less concerned. If the story has legs it will get there eventually, but the big media DO compete and madly copying some other guy’s scoop looks like following.
m.j.
Asking for a friend…
Didn’t they used to execute people in the old days for things like espionage?
mrmoshpotato
@m.j.: Ask Julius and Ethel.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@catclub: CNN also has a wider reach and no paywall
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: And people are responding to that with the old “he only has a problem with ILLEGAL immigrants”, after a whole Trump administration in which they pushed hard to basically shut down all legal immigration.
Yeah, he only has a problem with illegal immigrants and he’s going to make it all illegal.
Really, I don’t think he has a problem with white immigrants.
Villago Delenda Est
@Scout211: Solomon is a traitor just as Trump is.
Jackie
@Matt McIrvin: Obviously not. He married two white immigrants.
karen marie
Name one.
Jackie
@karen marie: As this happened two years ago, you’re right. The few sane republicans either retired or were primaried out. There are none left.
RaflW
@Tony Jay: Amen!
And, I think we already know how the D.C. press will go on this.
RaflW
@Jackie: And some of the pretend-sane ones turn out to be obtuse, fact-bending assholes when they become, say, president of the University of Florida.
Jackie
@RaflW: Which reinforces my comment they (he) are no longer in Congress.
Frankensteinbeck
@bbleh:
Let me add one. Malignant narcissists think in bizarrely twisted ways. Having been caught being helped by Russia, he convinced himself that he is innocent and being unfairly persecuted. He has built an entire personal mythology about it. Remember that in the ‘perfect’ transcript Trump asked for the hard drive containing Hillary’s deleted emails, which a fever swamp conspiracy theory said was in Ukraine. The news ignored it because he referred to it with the innocuous sounding name the conspiracy nuts give it, and because the whole theory is so batshit fucking crazy nobody wants to accept Trump could believe it. But that’s what narcissists are like. They can convince themselves they’re the victim when then they know the facts say otherwise.
sab
Cassidy Hutchinson is braver than some others, but she did stay on when she realized how fucked up they were.
I quit a job I liked a lot because the cash controls (including the company safe) were accessible to everyone and if there was a problem I would be blamed.
It really sucks, but sometimes you have to quit. Miss Hutchinson didn’t. She isn’t a hero. She is one of them that bailed just in time. She was doing the wrong thing until Liz Cheneys folks got ahold of her.
NotMax
@sab
Chalk it up, IMHO, to naivete rather than ideology.
mrmoshpotato
@sab:
Italics mine.
Question: WTF?!
prostratedragon
@NotMax: From one interview I heard, she had some upbringing issues to overcome as well.
prostratedragon
Four Seasons Total Landscaping would like a word with Mr. Giuliani.
Mike in Pasadena
For 55 years or so Republicans used the rulers of Mother Russia as the great satan. In eight short years, they became best friends with the evil empire. How did this happen?
Baud
@Mike in Pasadena:
For 55 years, hating Russia = hating liberals.
Today, loving Russia = hating liberals.
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud:
That’s correct, Baud! Don Pardo, tell Baud what he’s won!
Chris Johnson
@SFAW: Why not both?
I’ve been saying Trump works for Putin for years. For YEARS. I’m just going to predict that this opinion will only continue to be confirmed.
This was WWIII, and we kinda-sorta won it, and now it’s kinda-sorta Reconstruction. If Putin hadn’t tried to grab Ukraine too, he would doubtless still 100% have us by the balls. Funny how things work out. It’s kinda extraordinary how much that guy got control of.
Chris Johnson
@bbleh: A surprisingly cheap way to conquer your historic great enemy country.
Chris Johnson
@Mike in Pasadena: They’re not friends, they’re hostages. I think you’ll find there’s a divide between traditional Republicans and the MAGA, and they’re starting to hate each other worse than they hate Democrats.
MAGA are NOT ‘friend’ friends with Russia, they’re hostages. They’re child soldiers fighting for Russia against their country of residence, and they’re full of rationalizations and cognitive dissonance and meltdown. Otherwise they’d fight better.
AM in NC
@Matt McIrvin: From what I understand, Melania overstayed her original Visa, making her illegal. AND her family came over because of “chain migration” which the Fascists also vigorously oppose.
Just things to clap back with when the racist shitbags bring out that tired chestnut. Not that they’ll acknowledge these things, but I want them to know we see them for who and what they are.
NotMax
@AM in NC
FYI.
Melania Trump’s former adviser calls her citizenship speech ‘quite repulsive’.
Gvg
@Mike in Pasadena: Not quite. After the USSR fell apart, the US including the republicans sort of “helped” them become democracies and capitalist in a halfway not really paying attention sort of way that cost us. In that period until sometime around the first invasion of Ukraine and the 2016 election we started to wake up, we’ll some of us, to the fact that Russia still considered us to be an enemy and was attacking us, had been for years. During those sleepy years the Russians recruited and found excuses to bribe for friendship various Americans which turned out to be more republicans than democrats. They used the NRA for years, but that seems to have blown up by excessive corruption and spending I think on the part of the NRA. We should be looking into the less well know more radical gun right groups now. If Russia can spare the cash, I bet they are getting some. The religious groups are also being courted. The Russian mob is known to be connected to its government etc.
I think communism and Russia were a fear Target through the 30’s and up till the WWII,then after in the Cold War, then a lull when we “won”. All anti Russia with some China bashing thrown in. Now, I would say a good part of our population hasn’t yet woken up, and even more is too young even if they lean liberal, to understand why older liberals are so astonished at Republican behavior.
Maybe some of these old or at least mature looking republicans I see on TV are younger than I am and don’t remember when Russia was automatically assumed to be up to no good.
Another Scott
@Gvg: Cheryl Rofer reminded us that we had strong interests in not having the USSR implode into a bunch of failed states with thousands of nuclear weapons that could walk off to who knows where. And as we’ve seen with the “migration crises”, millions of people picking up and moving to other countries can and does cause political changes that are destabilizing and can be contrary to our interests.
We tried to help, for good reasons. Yeah, lots of mistakes and wrong turns. But ultimately the people in Russia determined their path…
Cheers,
Scott.
SFAW
@Chris Johnson:
About time.
JHC, I leave a set-up line out there, and it takes 10 hours. Either it’s falling out of fashion, or … ?
SFAW
@Chris Johnson:
Agreed
Never happen. They may be moving in that direction, but it’s not asymptotic, just fractional.
I disagree. They’re willing quislings. The “I’d vote for the Russkies before the Demon-craps” is an actual thing.
I again disagree. I attribute it to them worshipping at the altar of Putin’s/Russia’s greatest (non-obvious*) proselytizers, Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes. That, and that the MAGAts are fucking morons.
I normally really like your comments, but this time I think you’re wrong.
* “non-obvious” because their minions don’t make it exceedingly obvious that they’re Pravda on the Potomac, so to speak.
SFAW
@Gvg:
So now concern about Russia/Putin is “woke”? Another reason to support them Russkies.
Barry
@danielx: “Really does make one wonder how TFG’s balls ended up in Putin’s pocket.”
Trump’s biggest skill is pissing away vast sums of money. One of spawn admitted in ’08 or so that the company survived on Russian money.
I’ve assumed that most of this was highly illegal cash, probably drug money.
I’ve also assumed that Trump evaded money laundering and tax laws on this. And that Putin has receipts.
Barry
@catclub: “Really does make one wonder how TFG’s balls ended up in Putin’s pocket.”
‘Eventually’ has frequently meant ‘far too late’.
Barry
@Barry: I botched the quote.