Among the trove of documents former President Donald Trump stashed at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate were some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets.
Of the 102 documents seized by the FBI from an office, a bedroom, a ballroom, a bathroom, and a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, 54 were marked secret, and 17 were top secret.
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The classified documents included secrets about U.S. nuclear capabilities, America’s possible vulnerabilities to attack, and contingency plans for U.S. retaliation, according to the government’s 49-page indictment. They included documents marked “NOFORN,” meaning they could not be shared with foreign nationals, and “FVEY,” short for Five Eyes, indicating that they were shared only with U.S. intelligence partners in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Other classification markings revealed the source of the secret information, including “FISA” for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and “TK” for talent keyhole. That denoted intelligence gathered from overhead imagery, such as satellites or spy planes. Other markings were redacted, including what appear to be ultrasensitive “code word” classifications.
“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 indictment stated. “I know what kinds of documents we used to give to Donald Trump to help him make decisions,” former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, now a relentless Trump critic, said. “If they are anything like some of the things we presented to Trump in the Oval Office and the Situation Room, and the tank at the Pentagon, it could cause enormous damage, incalculable damage, to the United States.”
While the indictment cites two cases in which Trump allegedly showed classified documents to others who were not cleared to see them, including, in one instance, sharing a secret plan outlining options to attack Iran, none of the 31 counts filed against him accuse him of leaking sensitive information. “There’s no allegation in the charges that he has sold or disseminated the national defense information that he has sold or given it to somebody else,” said Bradley Moss, an attorney specializing in national security matters.
That’s a line of defense that Trump’s defenders are using to argue there was no actual harm in Trump’s belief he had a right to keep the documents after he left office. “Espionage charges are absolutely ridiculous. Whether you like Trump or not, he did not commit espionage. He did not disseminate, leak, or provide information to a foreign power or to a news organization to damage this country,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on ABC’s This Week. “You may hate his guts, but he is not a spy.”
Trump himself invoked the “No harm, no foul” argument in remarks immediately after his arraignment. “The Espionage Act has been used to go after traitors and spies. It has nothing to do with a former president legally keeping his own documents,” he said.
Not true, Moss said in an appearance on CNN. Besides spying, he said, the 1917 law “also encompasses a number of other potential felony provisions, one of which … is the willful retention of national defense information.” The law applies to any “national defense information,” whether or not it’s classified.
“When you bring an indictment like this, it’s not done in isolation. It’s not done in a vacuum. You got to take a lot of things into account,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on CBS. “You’re bringing an indictment that basically alleges no real damage to national security, not that it excuses it, versus what we’re going to see now. We’re going to subject this country to a divisive spectacle,” he said.
Trump is also charged with making false statements and obstruction of justice for hiding the documents and refusing to turn them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
“I know some people are saying, ‘Well, we don’t have any allegation the Russians have seen these documents, the Chinese have seen these documents,’” Bolton said. “The purpose of the provisions of the Espionage Act, and other protections around national security information, is to reduce the chances that our adversaries can get the documents,” he said on CNN. “And the behavior that is alleged in the complaint, intentional, clearly intentional … it just willfully puts the United States in grave danger.”
The Biden White House has referred all questions about whether Trump compromised vital secrets to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is conducting a national security assessment.
One concern is there is no way to know for sure who might have had access to the boxes of documents stored in unsecured areas, considering there have been at least two interlopers who have made their way onto Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate over the years. In 2019 when Trump was president, a Chinese woman was caught trespassing carrying two passports and a thumb drive with malware, and in 2021 and 2022, a Ukrainian immigrant linked to organized crime conned her way into Trump’s inner circle.
Given that the indictment documents two instances in 2021 in which Trump appeared to share highly classified material with unauthorized persons at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, some legal experts have speculated that special counsel Jack Smith may be holding off on more charges as a sort of ace in the hole should the Florida prosecution prove unsuccessful. Or perhaps as an additional indictment based on evidence still being developed.
“These two episodes were arguably the most egregious allegations of criminal wrongdoing mentioned in the indictment; they allege not just the improper retention of our nation’s most highly classified information, but the intentional communication of such information,” wrote New York University law professors Ryan Goodman and Andrew Weissmann in the Atlantic. “The legal uncertainties that surround bringing charges in Florida for dissemination of national-security secrets in Bedminster leaves open the possibility that charges might yet be brought in New Jersey,” they add.
Meanwhile, Trump’s former personal attorney-turned-nemesis, Michael Cohen, suggests there could be even more damning revelations to come. “I think the [Justice Department] should be, if they’re not already, looking at the unholy relationships that exist between Saudi Arabia, [Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman, and Jared Kushner,” Cohen said in an appearance on MSNBC, referencing Trump’s son-in-law.
“I mean, this whole $2 billion-plus to an unqualified hedge funder makes no sense to me. And in light of the information that came out, that there was military information on Iran … who knows what was shown to them? Who knows what was discussed? Who knows what was sold? None of us,” he added.
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“I think there’s a sense of entitlement about Donald Trump. That is what he wants. He’s entitled to — he can take it. He can do what he wants with it. And he doesn’t face consequences,” Bolton said.
“And his experience would tell him that there would be no downside for him,” he continued. “Now we are about to find out whether there’s going to be a downside. I think he’s been put in a situation he’s never experienced before.”
