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Donald 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 15 December 2023. 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.

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 told CNN. The Russian intelligence was just a small part of the collection of documents in the binder, described as being 10 inches thick, last seen at the White House during Trump’s final days in office. An unredacted version of the binder containing the classified raw intelligence went missing amid the chaotic final hours of the Trump White House.

Donald Trump was indicted on federal charges linked to his mishandling of classified material after leaving office in 2021. He held office from January 20, 2017, until January 20, 2021. Trump was accused of the willful retention of national defense information, corruptly concealing documents, conspiracy to obstruct justice, false statements, and improperly retaining sensitive government files following his stint in the White House. While US law mandates that presidential records are passed to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the agency said Trump failed to hand over all relevant documents.

Trump faced 31 counts of “Willful Retention of National Defense Information”, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He also faced charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice; withholding a document or record; corruptly concealing a document or record, and concealing a document in a federal investigation. Each of these charges carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. In addition, he faced a charge of “scheme to conceal” and had been accused of making false statements and representations, which each carry a maximum sentence of five years.

On August 18, 2016, TRUMP stated, "In my administration I'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law." On September 6, 2016, TRUMP stated, "We also need to fight this battle by collecting intelligence and then protecting, protecting our classified secrets. . . . We can't have someone in the Oval Office who doesn't understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified."

The FBI launched a probe into the matter in early 2022, and later turned up thousands of pages of records after a raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August of that year, including over 100 classified documents. Attorneys for the former president also handed over additional files voluntarily, before and after the search warrant was served. The Justice Department later tapped special counsel Jack Smith to lead the investigation, which culminated in a federal grand jury.

Trump faced seven criminal counts, including willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, according to sources cited by the New York Times. All of the charges are related to the classified documents probe.

Over the course of his presidency, TRUMP gathered newspapers, press clippings, letters, notes, cards, photographs, official documents, and other materials in cardboard boxes that he kept in the White House. Among the materials TRUMP stored in his boxes were hundreds of classified documents. The classified documents TRUMP stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.

The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods. The Mar-a-Lago Club was an active social club, which was not an authorized location for the storage, possession, review, display, or discussion of classified documents.

The Presidential Records Act deems all White House documents the property of the US government, meaning they must be preserved. In July 2021, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey ("The Bedminster Club"), during an audio-recorded meeting with a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance, TRUMP showed and described a "plan of attack" that TRUMP said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official. TRUMP told the individuals that the plan was "highly confidential" and "secret." TRUMP also said, "as president I could have declassified it," and, "Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret." According to US law, incumbent presidents can declassify information, but that authority lapses once they leave office.

In August or September 2021, at The Bedminster Club, TRUMP showed a representative of his political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map related to a military operation and told the representative that he should not be showing it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close. TRUMP endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued retention of classified documents by, among other things: suggesting that his attorney falsely represent to the FBI and grand jury that TRUMP did not have documents called for by the grand jury subpoena; directing defendant WALTINE NAUTA to move boxes of documents to conceal them from TRUMP's attorney, the FBI, and the grand jury; suggesting that his attorney hide or destroy documents called for by the grand jury subpoena; providing to the FBI and grand jury just some of the documents called for by the grand jury subpoena, while claiming that he was cooperating fully.

The classified documents investigation was first referred to prosecutors in 2022 after the US National Archives and Records Administration tried for more than a year to retrieve presidential records from Trump. Trump handed over 15 boxes of records in January 2022, a year after leaving office, but federal officials came to believe he had not returned all the government documents he had taken. The Justice Department issued Trump a grand jury subpoena in May 2022 asking him to return any other records bearing classified markings, and top officials traveled to Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the materials.

Trump's attorneys turned over 38 pages marked as classified to FBI and Justice Department officials and showed them a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, but they did not permit the agents to open any of the boxes. One of the Trump attorneys involved in searching Mar-a-Lago – Evan Corcoran – has since become a witness in the case. Corcoran drafted a document signed by another Trump lawyer attesting that all records with classified markings had been returned to the government - a claim later proven false after the FBI searched Trump's home.

On 08 August 2022, pursuant to a court-authorized search warrant, the FBI recovered from TRUMP's office and a storage room at The Mar-a-Lago Club 102 more documents with classification markings.

Trump confirmed the indictment in a number of social media posts on Thursday, saying US officials are “weaponizing” the Department of Justice and FBI against him and denouncing the case as a “hoax.” He said in one post “The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional Boxes in Chinatown, DC, with even more Boxes at the University of Pennsylvania,” , referring to classified material reportedly kept by the current president.

Trump maintained that he is an “innocent man,” and previously argued that he did not break the law in holding on to documents. “I am an innocent man!” Trump insisted. “I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former president of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country, and is currently leading, by far, all candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in polls of the 2024 presidential election.”

Trump has claimed that he declassified the documents through the use of his then-presidential powers; however, a recently released audio tape saw Trump in 2021 discussing a Pentagon document that he said was still classified.

Charges, and even a conviction, do not disqualify candidates from running. Some recent polling indicates that the case could actually improve his prospects with Republican voters, who may view the charges as another unfair “witch hunt” against Trump.

The former president has faced multiple and piling legal issues since leaving office in 2021. In late March, he was indicted in New York on more than 30 counts related to business fraud in a state case over an investigation into hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He is due to face trial next March, in the midst of the primaries. He was also found liable of sexual assault in a civil case stemming from an encounter with a New York City columnist in the early 1990s. There are other cases that are still under investigation which may result in more charges for Trump. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is looking into his role in providing hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who alleged she had an affair with Trump.

Prosecutors are looking into those payments to see if they violated campaign finance regulations. Additionally, Atlanta-area District Attorney Fani Willis was investigating alleged efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election in that state.