The Justice Department filed a lengthy response on Tuesday night to former President Donald Trump‘s latest legal demand on the raid on his Mar-a-Lago home.
The filing included one key attachment that garnered the most attention: a photograph showing a series of documents scattered on the floor of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
READ IN FULL: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S FILING IN RESPONSE TO TRUMP SPECIAL MASTER DEMAND
But what exactly is in the documents displayed by the DOJ, and how could it affect the case against Trump going forward? Below is a breakdown of what can be learned from the blockbuster photograph, what we are still in the dark on, and how some of the key figures in the investigation have reacted to the DOJ’s filing.
Exhibit One
The red-bordered folder with a “SECRET // SCI” cover sheet refers to information that is both secret and sensitive compartmented information, with “SCI” defined by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as a subset of classified national intelligence “concerning or derived from intelligence sources, methods, or analytical processes that is required to be protected within formal access control systems established by the DNI.”
The cover sheet included a heading stating the folder “contains sensitive compartmented information up to HCS-P/SI/TK.” The “HCS” marker refers to the Human Intelligence Control System, which is designed to protect human sources. “HCS-P” or “HCS-Product” is a specific HCS compartment used to protect intelligence information that is disseminated to intelligence consumers inside the intelligence community. “SI” relates to “special intelligence” and generally relates to communications intelligence, signals intelligence, or electronic intelligence.
PHOTO BOMB: DOJ RELEASES PIC OF TOP SECRET DOCS FOUND IN MAR-A-LAGO OFFICE
The “TK” marking stands for “talent keyhole,” which generally relates to signals intelligence, imagery intelligence, or measurement and signature intelligence — likely obtained by satellites or other aerial reconnaissance.
The intelligence community defines “TK” as a “DNI Security Control System for compartmentation of information and activities related to space-based collection of imagery, signals, measurement and signature intelligence, certain products, processing, and exploitation techniques, and the design, acquisition, and operation of reconnaissance satellites.”
It is not clear what specifically the folders actually contain.
Exhibit Two
The photograph also included five yellow-bordered folders marked “Top Secret” with the “SCI” marking. All of those folders also include the heading stating that the folder “contains sensitive compartmented information up to HCS-P/SI/TK.” The markings thus indicate those documents may also relate to the same sort of talent keyhole information potentially related to aerial imagery or possible satellite intelligence, though what is in the folders is not public.
DOJ FIGHTS TRUMP’S EFFORT TO OBTAIN SPECIAL MASTER FOLLOWING MAR-A-LAGO RAID
Exhibit Three
The DOJ photo also features seven records labeled “SECRET-ORCON-USGOV-NOFORN.” The labels are short for “Secret — Originator Controlled — U.S. Government — Not for Release to Foreign Nationals.” The intelligence community says that “originators of intelligence information are responsible for determining appropriate classification markings for the information they produce, and for applying the appropriate control markings that implement DNI guidelines for dissemination.”
There are also two records in the photo labeled “SECRET” and “NOFORN” without the other markings featured.
Exhibit Four
The photograph also includes a document with a seal of the United States labeled “Top Secret” and dated May 9, 2018. Much of the folder appears to be redacted by the Justice Department.
Two other documents with dates on them are also visible in the picture. One is among the “SECRET-ORCON-USGOV-NOFORN” records. The labels on it include “White House” and “limited access,” and it is dated August 2018. Another is a “confidential” record, which is also labeled “White House” and “limited access.” It is also dated August 2018. The specific dates for both are unclear, but they appear to have been between the 20th and 29th of that month.
There is also one “Top Secret” document that is blanked out, and the Justice Department also apparently used white-out on two “Secret” records.
Exhibit Five
The Justice Department also included a framed copy of Time magazine sitting in a box in the photograph. It was the March 4, 2019, cover titled, “The Biggest Field Yet. No Frontrunner. A Divided Base. Welcome to the 2020 Democratic Primary.”
The cover art shows Trump sitting in the Oval Office appearing to use his peripheral vision to look over his shoulder as a crowd of Democratic presidential contenders peers through the window behind him. Now-President Joe Biden has his face up the glass directly above Trump’s head, with now-Vice President Kamala Harris to Biden’s left and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to Biden’s right. Other failed contenders such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) are featured.
WHY DOES TRUMP WANT A SPECIAL MASTER?
Pushback from Trump and his allies
Trump and his allies condemned the Justice Department filing, including the inclusion of the photograph.
“Terrible the way the FBI, during the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, threw documents haphazardly all over the floor (perhaps pretending it was me that did it!), and then started taking pictures of them for the public to see,” Trump said on his Truth Social account Wednesday morning. “Thought they wanted them kept Secret? Lucky I Declassified!”
Trump has contended he had a “standing order” throughout his presidency that “documents removed from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them.” Several former Trump administration officials have cast doubt on that notion.
Justice Department Explanation
The Justice Department said Tuesday it seized 33 boxes, containers, and other “items of evidence” from Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, stating this included “over 100 classified records, including information classified at the highest levels.” The filing said, “Three classified documents that were not located in boxes, but rather were located in the desks in the ‘45 Office,’ were also seized.”
“Of the Seized Evidence, thirteen boxes or containers contained documents with classification markings, and in all, over one hundred unique documents with classification markings — that is, more than twice the amount produced on June 3, 2022, in response to the grand jury subpoena — were seized,” the Justice Department said. “Certain of the documents had colored cover sheets indicating their classification status.”
The prosecutor then pointed to “Attachment F” — the photograph of records and classified cover sheets allegedly found in a container in the “45 office” at Trump’s Florida resort home.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“The classification levels ranged from CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET information, and certain documents included additional sensitive compartments that signify very limited distribution,” the Justice Department said of the broad range of records seized at Mar-a-Lago. “In some instances, even the FBI counterintelligence personnel and DOJ attorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents.”
The U.S. attorney argued that “notwithstanding [the Trump] counsel’s representation on June 3, 2022, that materials from the White House were only located in the Storage Room, classified documents were found in both the Storage Room and in the former President’s office.”
