File ‘describing foreign nuclear defences’ found in search of Trump’s home
A document detailing a foreign government’s military defences – including its nuclear capabilities – was recovered by the FBI during a search of Donald Trump’s Florida home, it has been reported.
The Washington Post, citing people familiar with last month’s raid, did not identify the government discussed in the document, nor indicate whether it was friendly or hostile to the United States.
Roughly 11,000 documents and 1,800 other items were seized from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Court records show that about 100 contained classification markings.
Some describe top-secret US operations so closely guarded that even many of Joe Biden’s most senior national security officials are barred from reviewing them, according to the Post.
The newspaper reports that only the president and select members of his Cabinet could authorise disclosure of them.
Records dealing with these special-access programmes are typically kept under lock and key and assigned a designated control officer to keep careful watch on their location, the Post reports.
The US Justice Department is investigating Trump for removing government records from the White House after he departed in January 2021 and storing them at Mar-a-Lago.
On Monday, a federal judge agreed to Trump’s request to appoint a special master to review records seized in the FBI search.
The order almost certainly slows the pace of the investigation into the presence of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago, particularly given the judge’s directive that the Justice Department may not for the moment use any of the seized materials as part of its investigation into the storage of government secrets at the Florida property.
It remains in place until the yet-to-be-named special master completes his or her work, or until ‘further court order’.
Even so, it is not clear that the decision will present a long-term impediment to the investigation’s progress or significantly affect investigative decisions or the ultimate outcome of the probe.
And a separate assessment by the US intelligence community of the risk posed by the apparent mishandling of classified records will continue under the judge’s order.
The department and Trump’s lawyers are to submit by Friday a list of proposed special master candidates.
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