Category: Espionage

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Donald Trump Espionage Foreign Policy Russia Vladimir Putin

Top Secret Intel File On Russia Missing – Last Seen Before Trump Left Office

A file containing classified information about Russia and Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election disappeared in the last days of the Trump administration and has yet to be found, according to a terrifying report from CNN.

The binder contained raw intelligence the US and its NATO allies collected on Russians and Russian agents, including sources and methods that informed the US government’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Trump win the 2016 election, sources tell CNN.

The intelligence was so sensitive that lawmakers and congressional aides with top secret security clearances were able to review the material only at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where their work scrutinizing it was itself kept in a locked safe.

The file was last seen at the White House when Trump sought to declassify it for public release. The disgraced former president has long been obsessed with news reports suggesting that the Kremlin actively worked to get him elected instead of then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Additionally, the Russia binder wasn’t among the classified documents found when the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in August of last year, raising new questions about what might have become of the dossier.

New information suggests that the file was taken by former chief of staff Mark Meadows, CNN notes.

Cassidy Hutchinson, one of Meadows’ top aides, testified to Congress and wrote in her memoir that she believes Meadows took home an unredacted version of the binder. She said it had been kept in Meadows’ safe and that she saw him leave with it from the White House.

“I am almost positive it went home with Mr. Meadows,” Hutchinson told the January 6 committee in closed-door testimony, according to transcripts released last year.

George Terwilliger, an attorney for Meadows, denied his client is in possession of the file, remarking, “Anyone and any entity suggesting that he is responsible for anything missing does not have facts and should exercise great care before making false allegations.”

If the information is now in the hands of the Kremlin, has U.S. national security been compromised? And if so, what long-term ramifications could that pose for the overall security of the United States?

Perhaps members of the Trump administration, including the ex-president, need to be brought before a Senate committee and forced to testify under oath. After all, if they have nothing to hide, they should be eager to cooperate.

 

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Crime Donald Trump Espionage Russia

Did Trump’s Motive For Stealing Classified Documents Involve Russia?

As he continues to investigate the matter of classified documents former president Donald Trump illegally removed from the White House and took with him to Mar-a-Lago when he left office, Special Counsel Jack Smith is focusing in on Russia as the motive for why the failed ex-president took thousands of secret files and stored them at his Palm Beach golf resort.

In what may wind up being the greatest irony of all, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Murray Waas, Special Counsel Smith and a grand jury he impaneled believe Trump’s obsession with Russia led him to steal the information.

As he left office, Waas has learned, Trump desperately tried to declassify thousands of pages of secret documents that detailed Russia’s efforts to help defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

But Trump was stymied in his efforts to make the records public, leading the outgoing president to rage to aides that the documents would never see the light of day.

Now, sources close to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation tell me that prosecutors have questioned at least three people about whether Trump’s frustrations may have been a motive in Trump taking thousands of pages of classified papers from the White House to Mar-A-Largo, in potential violation of federal law. One of those people was compelled to testify before a federal grand jury, the sources say.

The sources say that prosecutors appear to believe the episode may be central to determining Trump’s intent for his unauthorized removal from the White House of the papers.  Insight into the president’s frame of mind—his intent and motivation, are likely to be the foundational building blocks of any case that the special counsel considers seeking against Trump.

That has led Smith to take a close look at conversations between the White House counsel, the Justice Department, and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the last frantic hours of the Trump administration.

The sources familiar with some aspects of the special counsel’s investigation further disclosed to me that prosecutors sought information regarding the following issues:   the witnesses were asked about any conversations they personally had with then-president Trump or any of their White House colleagues about the Russia papers; they were asked about conversations between senior Justice Department officials and attorneys with the White House counsel’s office, including two former senior lawyers in the office, John Eisenberg and Pat Philbin, regarding Trump’s presidential order to declassify the Russia papers; and they also were asked about the circumstances surrounding a memo written by Trump’s then Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, the day following Trump’s declassification order, in which Meadows appeared to reverse course and related that the papers would not be released before the concerns of other agencies regarding the Privacy Act were fully assuaged.

“It was very clear from what they asked that their emphasis was on Trump and Meadows,” one person said.

Another former aide to Trump, Kash Patel, has publicly stated that he saw all of the records the disgraced ex-president wanted declassified, telling Breitbart:

 “It’s information that Trump felt spoke to matters regarding everything from Russiagate to the Ukraine impeachment fiasco to major national security matters of great public importance—anything the president felt [the public] had a right to know is in there and more.”

So it was Russia that allegedly helped elect Trump, Russia that led to his impeachment, and Russia that may wind up sending him to prison for the rest of his life if Smith’s investigation proves Russiagate was what Trump clung to even after he left the White House.

Right about now, Donald Trump is probably wishing he had never heard of Russia or his BFF, Vladimir Putin.

 

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Crime Donald Trump Espionage

Jen Psaki Trolls Trump For His Documents Indictment With A ‘Little Trip Down Memory Lane’

There’s an old saying we’ve all heard that’s attributed to writer and philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

That’s certainly the case when it comes to failed one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump, who has said in the past that all sorts of people should be locked up for what he considers to be horrible crimes.

For example: The 2016 presidential campaign. In that race for the White House, Trump accused his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton of having improperly handled classified information and led his supporters in chants of “lock her up” on the campaign trail.

But as MSNBC host Jen Psaki noted Sunday, now that the shoe is on the other foot and Trump is facing decades behind bars for allegedly taking hundreds of top secret government documents with him and haphazardly storing them at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Donnie is singing a different tune.

“I want to take a little trip down memory lane,” Psaki said. “The year is 2016 and Donald Trump is very fired up over Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information.”

Cue the montage of Trump excoriating Clinton and vowing, if elected, “no one will be above the law.”

Ironically, Trump had Congress increase the penalties for mishandling classified government information after he defeated Clinton. And now those increases in the sentencing guidelines could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

How’s that for some brutal karma?

Twitter users then joined the online trolling of the Donald.

https://twitter.com/RegularCorrect/status/1667941012646379521?s=20
 

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Crime Donald Trump Espionage Ivanka Trump Melania Trump

Trump Indictment: A Female Family Member May Have Helped Him Hide Documents

When he spoke to the media this afternoon to formally announce the indictment of former president Donald Trump on 37 charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents and obstruction of justice, Special Counsel Jack Smith urged Americans who wanted to know why the indictments had been handed down to read the document he had just given to the press.

Business Insider notes that Smith “urged Americans to read the more than 40-page indictment — which included counts related to the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice — “to understand the scope and the gravity of the crimes charged.”

If you do indeed decide to read the indictment, you’ll immediately notice the scope and breadth of the charges and the evidence the Justice Department used to obtain approval from a grand jury, including allegations that the disgraced ex-president oversaw the moving of boxes containing documents, failed to secure some of the most sensitive information in the American intelligence apparatus (including nuclear secrets and the names of undercover operatives who obtained the information), and Trump’s total disregard for national security, which may have already led to significant leaks of top secret documents to our adversaries and enemies.

Also in the indictment, on page 23, is what appears to be evidence that a female member of the Trump family was either involved in the effort to hide the documents or knew they were being hidden and failed to notify federal authorities. Both are a crime.

Here’s page 23:

Who could that family member be? It was most likely either former First Lady Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, or Lara Trump, the wife of Eric Trump. Note that it was a “Trump family member.” That certainly narrows down the possibilities.

It should also be noted that the woman may not have known what was in the boxes, but the fact that she served as a courier for a message from the former president does make her part of the larger conspiracy and criminal act, if only by accident.

Whoever the family member is, she’s also in serious legal jeopardy. Unless, of course, that person is now cooperating with Smith’s team of prosecutors.

As Special Counsel Smith urged today, we should all read the indictment. Not only to be fully informed, but also so we can have a better sense of just how deeply Donald Trump may have endangered our national security and what that means for us all in the long term.

 

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Crime Donald Trump Espionage

Jack Smith Will Have No Choice But To Charge Trump With Espionage: Legal Expert

Based on recent reporting that failed former president Donald Trump may have shown classified documents people who visited him at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Special Counsel Jack Smith will be charging the ex-president with espionage as well as obstruction of justice, a state attorney said Wednesday.

On April 2, The Washington Post reported that Trump may have shared classified information with others.

As investigators piece together what happened in May and June of last year, they have been asking witnesses if Trump showed classified documents, including maps, to political donors, people familiar with those conversations said.

That, according to Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, would constitute a direct violation of the Espionage Statute found in federal law.

During an appearance on “Deadline: White House” Wednesday, Aronberg noted:

“I think the reason that they asked about the map is another statute, 18 USC 719 (e), ‘The Espionage Statute,’ says that someone who is unauthorized to have possession of a map and then shows it to someone who can’t see it violates that statute,” Aronberg explained. “So, they’re not just going after him for obstruction, but also espionage, which is punishable by up to ten years in prison. That’s why there’s a lot of trouble ahead. That’s why Bill Barr is saying, hey, this is the tough one. It’s not New York that will do in the former president in. I think it’s the Mar-a-Lago documents because there’s a direct tie between the former president and the alleged criminality there.”

Keep in mind that’s ten years for each count of violating the Espionage Statute. And Trump could be charged for every single time he took the documents out and showed them to others who didn’t have a valid security clearance. Two people would be 20 years. If he showed them to 10 people, he’d be facing a century in federal prison.

Things are about to get much worse for Donald Trump. The only question that remains is when Smith will hand down the indictments against the former president and exactly what crimes the former president will be charged with.