Former DHS official: Trump indictment paints 'vivid picture' of what national security community dealt with for four years

Former Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism Elizabeth Neumann on Sunday said former President Trump’s federal indictment paints a “vivid picture” of what the national security community dealt with for four years under his presidency. 

“I found the indictment to be a really vivid picture for the American public of what the national security community dealt with for four years when he was president. He had a blatant disregard, just did not care to follow the rules,” Neumann said on ABC’s “This Week.” 

“And not only did he not protect our country's most sensitive secrets, that's not protecting American lives — because you have military and intelligence community personnel that are now put at risk. You have assets, our foreign allies’ information is put at risk,” she added.

Trump, who is running for president again in 2024 after losing his 2020 reelection bid to President Biden, was federally indicted last week on 37 counts, the majority of which are alleged violations of the Espionage Act, in connection with the alleged mishandling of records at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida after leaving the White House.

“If you're a foreign intelligence agency, you know that Mar-a-Lago is a great target and you're probably trying to figure out what might be there,” Neumann said on Sunday.

“Hopefully, we're finding out what might have been leaked, but this causes people to die. Like, this is very serious, top secret Special Access Programs — when they fall into the wrong hands, people die, and the United States Security is deeply compromised,” she said.