The Wall Street Journal has the scoop on Friday that FBI agents who searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home hauled away 11 sets of classified documents, including top-secret items that must be housed in federal facilities.
A reported 20 boxes were taken by agents, including a handwritten note and the executive grant of clemency Trump bestowed on GOP operative and ‘Stop the Steal’ advocate Roger Stone.
The inventory obtained by The Wall Street Journal also noted that the boxes contained information about “the President of France.” Attached to this list is a seven-page document that features the warrant used to search Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, resort.
RELATED STORY: Put up or shut up: Trump claims he won’t stop release of Mar-a-Lago search warrant
Trump has until 3 PM ET today (Aug. 12) to furnish any objection to unsealing the warrant, though he has already claimed he would not object. The former president’s attorneys did not return a request for comment by email or phone when Daily Kos reached out Friday.
The records taken by agents also reportedly include a reference to documents that are labeled as “Various classified/TS/SCI.” The TS is shorthand for “top secret,” and SCI is shorthand for “sensitive compartmented information.”
Per the Journal, emphasis added:
“It also says agents collected four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents, and three sets of confidential documents. The list didn’t provide any more details about the substance of the documents.
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Trump’s attorneys have indicated they do not have a copy of the affidavit. They have separately asked for more information about what was taken from the resort, anonymous sources told the Wall Street Journal.
In the wake of initial reports that FBI agents had identified classified information held at Mar-a-Lago, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, the former commanding general of the U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army, offered the public a crash course on classification qualifications on Twitter.
The three types of classification labels—confidential, secret, and top secret—each come with certain restrictions, Hertling said, noting there is nothing higher than a “top secret” classification.
A “confidential” document, while the lowest level of certification, is still key to keep protected because it still contains information that could potentially damage national security or disclose an element of it. This could be tied to things like the number of troops deployed or weapons capabilities.
Per the Code of Federal Regulations, a “secret” classification would be attached to an item that, if exposed, would do “serious damage” and in particular to “foreign relations significantly affecting the national security; significant impairment of a program or policy directly related to the national security; revelation of significant military plans or intelligence operations; and compromise of significant scientific or technological developments relating to national security.”
A “top secret” document is the top-of-the-line in terms of classification. Any documents with this label that are disclosed without permission or authorization are considered to pose “exceptionally grave damage” to national security.
Security clearances are only granted to individuals who require them for their work, and the process to obtain them is rigorous.
As the Wall Street Journal broke this news first on Friday, Breitbart, the right-wing propaganda outlet, said it also obtained a copy of the warrant before it was unsealed. Breitbart’s coverage echoed Republican talking points about the warrant, insinuating that there was something nefarious at play because, they claimed, the warrant showed it was issued by Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart on Aug. 5 but the search of Trump’s home was not conducted until Aug. 8.
All of this, of course, was preceded by meetings between Trump’s legal team and FBI agents and investigators.
Fox News also reported that it had obtained the warrant before it was publicly released.
Daily Kos has not seen a copy of the warrant in advance, but according to The Wall Street Journal, it shows that agents specified a search of “the 45 office” and “all storage rooms and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available to be used by the [the former president] and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings in the estate.”
Daily Kos has also yet to independently obtain the attachments to the warrant, though other outlets, including NBC, Politico, and others, are reporting that Trump is under investigation for the Espionage Act because the statutes listed by agents to pursue evidence included 18 U.S.C. § § 793, 2071, and 1519.
18 U.S.C. 793 is the Espionage Act. Specifically, it is charged for the willful or grossly negligent removal of information related to the national defense.
18 U.S.C. 2071 is related to the concealment, removal, or mutilation of documents, and 18 U.S.C. 1519 is related to the destruction, alteration, or falsification of documents that are part of a federal investigation.
If accurate, this would make Trump the first former president—or president, period—under investigation for espionage by the United States Justice Department.
This story is developing.
