Trump kept foreign nuclear secrets at his Florida home, report

One of the documents seized from Mar-A-Lago included details about a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, highlighting the serious nature of the sensitive material that was seized during the FBI’s search of the former president’s residence last month.

According to the Washington Post, the document in question included descriptions of the foreign nation’s military defenses, including its “nuclear-defense readiness.”

The nation in question has not been identified so it’s unclear if it is a U.S. ally or a rival power.

Some of the documents seized from Mar-A-Lago are highly classified and require authorization from either the president or a cabinet member to be accessed by any other government official, the report adds, citing an unnamed 

These documents are reportedly only made available to government officials on a “need-to-know basis,” a higher threshold than top-secret clearance.

The highly sensitive nature of these documents means they are always stored in “a secure compartmented information facility” and are monitored by a designated control officer, the report noted.

BIG NUMBER

325. That is the total number of classified documents that have been recovered from Trump’s Florida residence this year. “More than 100” of those were seized by the FBI in a search of the property last month, the Justice Department disclosed in a court filing.

KEY BACKGROUND

Last month, the Washington Post reported that nuclear weapon-related records were among the documents being sought by the FBI as they conducted a search of the Mar-A-Lago property last month. At the time, the nature of these nuclear documents was not revealed. Federal agents managed to recover 20 boxes from the former president’s Florida residence that included, among other things, various classified materials, a handwritten note, and information regarding the president of France. Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled in favor of Trump and ordered an independent “special master” to review the documents seized from his property, a move that is likely to hinder and slow down the DOJ’s ongoing investigation into the former president’s actions.

FORBES