Federal agents reportedly recovered a document describing a foreign government’s nuclear capabilities from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last month.
The FBI raided Trump’s country club home last month amid an investigation into whether he was keeping classified and top secret records insecurely, and investigators recovered more than 100 classified documents, in addition to another 200 that had been handed over to the National Archives and Records Administration in January, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
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The information was about “a foreign government’s nuclear-defense readiness,” though it doesn’t necessarily preclude it being about a nonnuclear power.
The report did not specify which country’s nuclear capabilities were detailed in the document, though if it is one of the members of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, then it’d be Russia, the United Kingdom, France, or China, but it could be one of the other countries believed to possess nuclear weapons, such as India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel, or a country pursuing such a weapon such as Iran.
Russia: U.S.-Russia relations have reached a new low since Russia began the largest ground military invasion since World War II. There have been some concerns from experts that Russia could use a low-grade nuclear weapon during its war in Ukraine, though the Defense Department has maintained that it has not yet seen any significant change in Russia’s nuclear posture.
U.K./France: The French and British make up two of the five countries that have built and tested a nuclear device before 1967 that have agreed to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The others are the U.S., China, and Russia.
China: The Chinese Communist Party has weaponized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan last month, using it as the catalyst behind a significant military response, according to the Biden administration, which maintains that the speaker’s visit did not represent a change in U.S. policy. The Chinese have been rapidly expanding their military arsenal and are continuing to do so.
India/Pakistan: India conducted its first nuclear weapons test nearly 50 years ago and has full nuclear fuel cycle capabilities while its regional rival Pakistan also has a nuclear arsenal, raising the stakes of a possible conflict.
North Korea: North Korea is another adversary the nuclear program of which the U.S. would love to see dismantled. In addition to more than a dozen rocket launches this year from North Korea, Russia has also reached out to them to purchase millions of rockets and artillery shells, though it hasn’t happened yet.
Iran: The U.S. and Iran are still continuing European Union-led negotiations to rejoin the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement, which lifted some sanctions along with the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear weapon program with the promise of international oversight. An administration official said on Tuesday, “There’s still gaps, and we’re just not there yet.”
John Kirby, the coordinator for the national security council, did not say how much longer the two sides would remain at the negotiating table before walking away without a deal. President Joe Biden has promised to never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.
Israel: Israel has possessed nuclear weapons since the 1960s, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, though its government maintains a policy of never confirming the existence of its nuclear program.
The group represents a large swath of allies and adversaries ranging from the U.K. and France to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, though it remains unclear which country’s nuclear status was the subject of the document purportedly to be found at Mar-a-Lago.
This document was one of more than 100 that the FBI seized on Aug. 8 when it raided the Florida country club, while the former president had already returned more than 200 to the National Archives in January. Some of the documents recovered last month were top secret to such an extent that many senior national security officials are not cleared to view them, according to the Washington Post, though it’s unstated the classification designation of this specific document about another country’s nuclear program.
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A day before the revelation that a foreign power’s nuclear capabilities were discovered among the recovered documents, a federal judge in Florida granted the Trump team’s request for a special master to review the material seized in the FBI search and sort through any documents that may be covered by executive privilege. The judge ruled in favor of the former president, while the Justice Department lawyers said a “filter” team has already conducted such a review.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump decried the Mar-a-Lago raid and fallout over classified documents as a “witch hunt” and that “All American Patriots know that I always do everything ‘by the book’ and that this Hoax will fail miserably” in a statement.
