WASHINGTON, Aug 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s seizure of classified documents from Donald Trump’s sprawling Mar-a-Lago retreat highlights current national security concerns raised by the former president and home he dubbed the Winter White House, according to some security experts. to say.
Trump is under federal investigation for possible violations of the Espionage Act, which makes it illegal to spy for another country or mishandle US defense information, including sharing it with people not authorized to receive it, according to display a search command. Read more
As president, Trump sometimes shared information regardless of its sensitivity. Early in his presidency, he spontaneously gave top-secret information to Russia’s foreign minister about a planned Islamic State operation while in the Oval Office, U.S. officials said at the time.
Register now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
But it was at Mar-a-Lago, where wealthy members and people attended weddings and fundraising dinners playing on an oceanfront patio, that American intelligence seemed particularly at risk. While the Secret Service provided physical security at the site while Trump was president and after, they are not responsible for vetting guests or members.
The Justice Department’s search warrant raises national security concerns, former DOJ official Mary McCord said.
“They clearly thought it was very serious to return these materials to a safe space,” McCord said. “Even the retention of highly classified documents in inadequate storage, especially given Mar-a-Lago, the foreign visitors there and others who might have connections to foreign governments and foreign agents, creates a significant threat to national security”.
Trump, in a statement on his social media platform, said the records were “all declassified” and placed in “secure storage.”
McCord said, however, that he saw no “plausible argument that he made a conscious decision about each of them to declassify them before they left.” After he left office, he said, he did not have the power to declassify information.
Monday’s seizure by FBI agents of multiple sets of documents and dozens of boxes, including US defense information and a reference to the “French president,” poses a terrifying scenario for intelligence professionals .
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, US on 6 April 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
Read more
“It’s a nightmare environment for the careful handling of highly classified information,” said one former US intelligence official. “It’s just a nightmare.”
The DOJ has not provided specific information about how or where the documents and photos were stored, but the club’s general vulnerabilities have been well documented.
In one prominent example, Trump met in 2017 with then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at an outdoor table while guests stood nearby, listening and taking photos that they later posted on Twitter.
The dinner was interrupted by a North Korean missile test, and guests listened as Trump and Abe knew what to say in response. After issuing a statement, Trump moved on to a wedding reception at the club.
“What we saw was that Trump was so lax on security that he had a sensitive meeting on a potential war issue where non-US government personnel could observe and photograph,” said Mark Zaid, a lawyer specializing in the cases of national security. “It would have been easy for someone to also have a device that was also listening and recording what Trump was saying.”
White House aides set up a secure room at Mar-a-Lago for sensitive discussions. It was there that Trump decided to launch airstrikes against Syria for the use of chemical weapons in April 2017.
The decision made, Trump went to dinner with visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping. Over a dessert of chocolate cake, Trump briefed Xi on the airstrikes.
In 2019, a Chinese woman who passed the club’s security checks with a thumb drive encoded with “malicious” software was arrested for trespassing on restricted property and making false statements to officials, the officials said at the time. authorities
Then-White House chief of staff John Kelly made an effort to try to limit who Trump had access to at Mar-a-Lago, but the effort failed when Trump refused to cooperate, the people said. his assistants at the time.
Register now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Reporting by Steve Holland and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Heather Timmons and William Mallard
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.