TRUMP's PublicStatements on Classified Information
a. On August 18, 2016, TRUMP stated, "In my administration going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. Noone will be above the law."
b. 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."
c. On September 7, 2016, TRUMP stated, "One of the first things we must do is to enforce all classification rules and to enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information."
d. On September19, 2016, TRUMP stated, "We also need the best protection of classified information."
e. On November3 , 2016, TRUMP stated, "Service members here in North Carolina have risked their lives to acquire classified intelligenceto protect our country".
23. As President of the United States, on July 26, 2018, TRUMP issued the following statement about classified information:
As the head of the executive branch and Commander in Chief, I have a unique, Constitutional responsibility to protect the Nation's classified information, including by controlling access to it. ... More broadly, the issue of [a former executive branch official's] security clearance raises larger questions about the practice of former officials maintaining access to our Nation's most sensitive secrets long after their time in Government has ended. Such access is particularly inappropriate when former officials have transitioned into highly partisan positions and seek to use real or perceived access to sensitive information to validate their political attacks. Any access granted to our Nation's secrets should be in furtherance of national, not personal, interests.
TRUMP's Retention of Classified Documents After His Presidency
24. In January 2021,as he was preparing to leave the White House,TRUMP and his White House staff, including NAUTA, packed items, including some of TRUMP's boxes. TRUMP was personally involved in this process. TRUMP caused his boxes,containing hundreds of classified documents,to be transported from the White House to The Mar-a-Lago Club
25. From January through March 15,2021, some of TRUMP's boxes were stored in The Mar-a-Lago Club's White and Gold Ballroom, in which events and gatherings took place. TRUMP's boxes were for a time stacked on the ballroom's stage, as depicted in the photograph below (redacted to obscure an individual's identity)
26. In March 2021, NAUTA and others moved some of TRUMP's boxes from the White and Gold Ballroom to the business center at The Mar-a-Lago Club.
27. On April 5, 2021, an employee of The Office of Donald J. Trump (“Trump Employee )texted another employee of that office ( Trump Employee 2 ) to ask whether TRUMP's boxes could be moved out of the business center to make room for staff to use it as an office. Trump Employee 2 replied, Woah !!Ok so potus specifically asked Walt for those boxes to be in the business center because they are his papers. Later that day,Trump Employee 1and Trump Employee 2 exchanged the following text messages:
Trump Employee2 : We can definitely make it work if we move his papers into the lake room?
Trump Employee1 : There is still a little room in the shower where his other stuff is. Is it only his papers he cares about? Theres some other stuff in there that are not papers. Could that go to storage?Or does he want everything in there on property
Trump Employee2 : Yes anything that's not the beautiful mind paper boxes [?]can definitely go to storage. Want to take a look at the space and start moving tomorrow AM?
28. After the text exchange between Trump Employee 1 and Trump Employee 2 , in April 2021, some of TRUMP's boxes were moved from the business center to a bathroom and shower in The Mar- a- Lago Club's Lake Room, as depicted in the photograph below.
29. In May 2021, TRUMP directed that a storage room on the ground floor of The Mar-a-Lago Club (the Storage Room") be cleaned out so that it could be used to store his boxes. The hallway leading to the Storage Room could be reached from multiple outside entrances, including one accessible from The Mar-a-Lago Club pool patio through a doorway that was often kept open. The Storage Room was near the liquor supply closet, linen room, lock shop, and various other rooms.
...
31. On December 7, 2021, NAUTA found several of TRUMP's boxes fallen and their contents spilled onto the floor of the Storage Room, including a document marked SECRET REL TO USA, FVEY, which denoted that the information in the document was releasable only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance consisting of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. NAUTA texted Trump Employee 2,“I opened the door and found this NAUTA also attached two photographs he took of the spill. Trump Employee 2 replied no oh no, and I'm sorry potus had my phone." One of the photographs NAUTA texted to Trump Employee 2 is depicted below with the visible classified information redacted. TRUMP's unlawful retention of this document is charged in Count 8 of this Indictment.
[Sickening. Embarrassing.]
TRUMP's Disclosures of Classified Information in Private Meetings
32. In May 2021, TRUMP caused some of his boxes to be brought to his summer residence at The Bedminster Club. Like The Mar-a-Lago Club, after TRUMP's presidency, The Bedminster Club was not an authorized location for the storage, possession,review, display, or discussion of classified documents.
33. On July21, 2021,when he was no longer president,TRUMP gave an interview in his office at The Bedminster Club to a writer and a publisher in connection with a then-forthcoming book Two members of TRUMP's staff also attended the interview, which was recorded with TRUMP's knowledge and consent. Before the interview, the media had published reports that,at the end of TRUMP's term as president, a senior military official (the Senior Military Official ) purportedly feared that TRUMP might order an attack on Country A and that the Senior Military Official advised TRUMP against doing so. Upon greeting the writer, publisher, and his two staff members, TRUMP stated, "Look what I found, this was [the Senior Military Official's] plan of attack, read it and just show it's interesting." Later in the interview, TRUMP engaged in the following exchange:
TRUMP: "Well, with [the Senior Military Official] , let me see that, I'll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack [Country A ] . Isn't it amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look This was him. They presented me this this is off the record, but they presented me this . This was him. This was the Defense Department and him."
34. WRITER: "Wow."
TRUMP: "We looked at some. This was him. This wasn't done by me, this was him. All sorts of stuff pages long look.
STAFFER: Mm.
TRUMP: Wait a minute, let's see here.
STAFFER: [Laughter] "Yeah."
TRUMP: "I just found, isn't that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know."
STAFFER: "Mm- hm."
TRUMP: "Except it is like, highly confidential."
STAFFER: Yeah. [Laughter]
TRUMP: "Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. You attack, and---
TRUMP: "By the way. Isn't that incredible?"
STAFFER: "Yeah."
TRUMP: "I was just thinking, because we were talking about it.
And you know, he said, he wanted to attack
Country A , and what . . ."
STAFFER: "You did."
TRUMP: "This was done by the military and given to me. Uh, I think we can probably, right?
STAFFER: "I don't know, we'll, we'll have to see. Yeah, we'll have to try to..."
TRUMP: "Declassify it."
STAFFER: "--figure out a--yeah"
TRUMP: "See as president I could have declassified it."
STAFFER: "Yeah." [Laughter]
TRUMP: Now I can't,you know, but this is still a secret."
STAFFER: "Yeah" Laughter] "Now we have a problem."
TRUMP: " Isn't that interesting?"
[Outrageous]
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