In the latest retrieval of government documents, the FBI found a lode of material marked “top secret” and highly classified, according to this article byinvestigative reporters Devlin Barrett and Carol D. Leonnig. The Office of National Intelligence is currently reviewing the documents to determine to what extent the nation’s security was damaged by the removal of these documents from their properly guarded locations.
A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material stashed in the Florida property.
Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special-access programs, according to people familiar with the search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive details of an ongoing investigation.
Documents about such highly classified operations require special clearances on a need-to-know basis, not just top-secret clearance. Some special-access programs can have as few as a couple dozen government personnel authorized to know of an operation’s existence. Records that deal with such programs are kept under lock and key, almost always in a secure compartmented information facility, with a designated control officer to keep careful tabs on their location.
But such documents were stored at Mar-a-Lago, with uncertain security, more than 18 months after Trump left the White House.
After months of trying, according to government court filings, the FBI has recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago this year: 184 in a set of 15 boxes sent to the National Archives and Records Administration in January, 38 more handed over by a Trump lawyer to investigators in June, and more than 100 additional documents unearthed in a court-approved search on Aug. 8.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This, no matter how the Post writes it, was a leak from the *rump team, not the DOJ, as some may read into it.
Was Trump trying to monetize his access by taking this stuff? Surely he was not just being random.
It’s difficult to say exactly how he was going to turn these to his profit, because like lots of mobsters, he has basically a thug’s mentality–he is completely amoral and criminal but also really, really stupid and ignorant, so it’s hard to put together what passes for thinking in that twisted mind of his. But as Diane has pointed out, Trump never does anything that isn’t with the aim of aggrandizing himself or increasing his net worth or slithering out of some trouble or getting even. Remember the John Gotti, Sr. wiretap transcriptions? Remember how moronic and crude and vicious and vindictive and rapacious the guy was? Trump, SAME GUY,
And Jared gets 2 billion from the Saudis. And Trump is being called “our guy” on Russian state TV (which is the only kind of TV allowed in Putin’s Russia).
You ask an important question, Roy? Who did he pass this info to, and in exchange for what, for everything with Trump is transactional, a quid pro quo. Weapons for Ukraine in exchange for dirt or the appearance thereof on Biden and Hunter.
Lord only knows how much Trump has compromised our country with this treason.
Trump took home the documents to catch up on his classified reading.
He was studying for the SAT (Secrets Aptitude Test)
Trump reading. Haaaaaaaaa!!!!
Trump studying. Haaaaa!!!!
Trump selling out his country to anyone with cash. Yup. Sounds right.
What the FBI found at Mar-a-Lago: Piles and piles and piles of the most sensitive documents belonging to the United States, what was left of them, all reeking of the smell of the criminal, traitorous POS who committed espionage by taking these to his freaking beach house and has now been given a pass, yet again, by the Flor-uh-duh judge he appointed after losing the last Election. The Teflon Don, Cheeto “Littlefingers” Trumpbalone slides again, . . . because, the Just Us System.
What is sad is that this breach is so much bigger than Trump and his agenda. This is about the safety of our nation and our operatives abroad, but Trump is making this a partisan issue and, of course, all about himself.
This is the thing that appalls me–that people aren’t more shocked and concerned. Many of our friends around the world could die because of this. Many of our enemies and enemies of our allies could get information from those documents, including the missing ones, that would enable them to do breathtaking damage. We are not talking here about failure to pay a parking fine! He committed the most serious of crimes.
As usual, RT, you go straight to the heart of the matter, to what really has significance.
Revelation of information with that level of security can literally be doomsday stuff. This is not a freaking game.
I suspect with the direct assertion today that the Judge has endangered National Security there may be a little something more here than the improper possession and storage of documents.
Of course the Orange buffoon will claim Biden bugged his phones and not MBS’s or the Russian Embassy.
What the FBI found at Mar-a-Lago: Many multiples of the evidence that would be needed to indict, try, convict, and imprison any traitor with illegal possession of them.
A recent CIA officer with thirty-four years of service spoke about the security breach on an NBC news broadcast. He maintained that any documents that have not been secured must be considered compromised and harmful to national security. Regardless of Trump’s intentions, this is a security disaster for our country.
Exactly
My thoughts exactly. Here’s a letter to the editor I wrote the local paper chose not to run, I hope it fits here:
My late father-in-law served this country with great honor in the most sensitive capacities, had the highest of security clearances, and went to his grave having never uttered one word about the substance of his work to his family or anyone else not authorized to hear it.
Had he been caught with just one piece of classified paper on his premises after he retired, he would have been retroactively stripped of rank, dishonorably discharged, and had his pension terminated.
The top secret papers found in former President Trump’s private storage have no value to average citizens. They would only have value to the enemies of our nation; to those who would injure, destroy significant parts of the it, along with tens of millions of Americans.
If it is true that former President Trump had boxes of information with classified nuclear secrets in his home, there is only one conclusion that can be reached. He was willing to barter or sell the welfare of this nation for his private benefit.
It doesn’t get more dishonorable than that. Stripping him of the benefits that come with being a former president seem the very least we could do as a people.
Great letter that points to the gravity of this issue. Our operatives and assets put their lives on the line daily in service to this nation. They do not seek recognition, glory or wealth. In fact, when they fall, they get an anonymous star on the wall at CIA headquarters. The are patriots in the truest sense of the word. We owe them an appropriate response to this security breach.
As usual, Greg, you nailed it.
Thank you, Greg, RT. Exactly.
Re: being one’s own proofreader. A friend pointed out a typo to me. I swear, I read this at least 4-5 times since sending and it was on the last that I saw the obvious typo. Now, your work, on the other hand, I see it all!
Thanks, RT and Bob. These are very grave times and few seem to understand it. We know 40% don’t. I fear more than 50% of the rest don’t either.
Great front page story in today’s NYT that sums up my fears. The wins will be consequential. If they get majorities from school boards to federal office all bets are off immediately. And they will. The only firewalls now are Democrats maintaining control of all three branches, but their majorities, should they have them, will be weak and the system will suffer. Republicans will continue to gum up the works. But should they win. Remember, it took 30 days for Hitler to change the de facto Weimar constitution from a civil society to complete takeover and become an authoritarian, fascist state. With the judiciary in solid hands of regression for our lifetimes, only stemming the bleeding and hoping for a little scar tissue to develop is about all for which we can hope.
Are you talking about the “stripping him . . . seems” agreement error, Greg? That kind of thing is extremely common. Hell, I was a professional grammarian–a guy who wrote grammar books (and books on other ELA topics)–and my posts are full of these inadvertent errors.
This is one of the flaws at the heart of our system, perhaps a tragic flaw, the one that ultimately brings us down. In order to be given these high security clearances, people are subjected to extremely rigorous background checks and other vetting. But any criminal, even one who is obviously at least an asset of not an agent of a hostile foreign power, someone like Trump, can gain access to the most sensitive information if enough morons are convinced to vote for him. (He played a businessman on TV!!!) The founders did not envision this. And they didn’t envision that person criminal having access to what is literally doomsday information–stuff that, if revealed, could bring about catastrophes.
My nephew is a computer engineer that used to work for security company whose main client was the US Government. Before starting work, he had to go through numerous vettings including an FBI security check which was a six month long process. National security is a serious matter. Also, anyone applying for a green card in this country has to also go through a six month FBI check before qualifying for permanent resident status.
They are essentially focussing on making one side of a damn completely water tight while the main sluiceway is open.
As the Snowden leak and the Solar Winds malware infection showed, the whole system leaks like a sieve and no one fix will remedy the situation.
What we really need is to hire some smart people to redesign the entire security system from top to bottom because unfortunately, the people we have right now are nowhere near up to the task.
It’s breathtaking how stupid some of our politicians and journalists are. We are talking about information of a level of security indicating that it could be used to identify and murder agents and assets of the US government, to build or compromise weapons systems, etc. Imagine a city blowing up because the information fell into the wrong hands, and they used it to bring about that end. That’s the level of security we are talking about here. It is completely INSANE that this man is not in prison, NOW, and that the whole place is not being swept and everyone connected to it investigated. This is as serious as it gets. And again, a judge who delays action on this is not a serious person.
To say nothing of access to the nuclear weapons doomsday button.
They could not have envisioned the specifics, but they certainly could have envisioned the broad problem of granting a single individual with as much power as they granted the president.
And what should have made their “error” very obvious to them was the fact that they had just fought a war to (supposedly) free themselves from the absolute powers of a king, but nonetheless effectively replaced one king with another.
They also didn’t envision a kakistocracy–enormous numbers of voters so utterly stupid that they think that someone like IQ45 is a genius.
Early on, after he was chosen to be president, Washington entered a room, and the members of the Congress stood, and he told them to sit down; he wasn’t a king. That was the point, supposedly, of the revolution.
A judge who would delay acting against someone who has so compromised the United States is not a serious person.
Trump doesn’t do anything unless he gets some reward. I wonder to whom he sold the missing files.
…………………………………………….
When a Malignant Narcissist Loses
Natalie Frank, Ph.D.
Nov 3, 2020
Hold on tight because we may be about to find out what this looks like
Malignant narcissists are notorious because they destabilize our world through manipulation, deceit and aggressive bullying and victimization. It is hard to have one of these individuals in our lives because we tend to interact with them as if they think, feel and act the same way we do. We often believe if we can just make them understand what they are doing they will have an “aha” moment, recognize the error of their ways and make amends.
The most difficult thing about interacting with a narcissist is accepting that they aren’t like us. They have no empathy and therefore are incapable of caring about others, lie and alter accounts of past events, have no qualms about hurting people to get what they want and covertly attack others just to make themselves feel superior. These individuals are toxic, and leave only human suffering in their wake.
There has been enough published by now that we recognize how dangerous these individuals are because their pathology is a pervasive pattern that motivates so much of their behavior. Because narcissistic traits are much more common than originally believed, most of us are aware of the general characteristics associated with this type of pathology. This includes an inflated sense of entitlement, grandiose superiority, delusions of perfection, a complete disregard for the truth, constant conniving and scheming to take advantage of others, feeling that rules and laws don’t apply to them, cruelty and the need to demean others. These characteristics can have devastating consequences for those who interact with them…
Because it is impossible to maintain a perfect image in a social setting where you cannot completely control everyone, narcissists constantly worry about losing the power they have over others. Whenever they sense threat to their power which would could lead to their self-doubt surfacing, they will panic…
View at Medium.com
Anyone else who had done what Trump did would now be in jail.
Anyone else [without the money to throw crooked lawyers at it] who had done what Trump did [throughout his criminal life] would now be in jail.
Yes, every detail of that orange-faced mobster’s life is of a piece with every other…
I am going to repeat this because it is important:
About the Mar-a-lago raid and its aftermath: It’s breathtaking how stupid some of our politicians and journalists are in their responses to this. We are talking about information of a level of security indicating that it could be used to identify and murder agents and assets of the US government, to build or compromise weapons systems, and even worse (yes, even worse). Imagine a city blowing up, literally going missing like Hiroshima or Nagasaki, because information fell into the wrong hands, and the owners of those hands used it to bring about that end. That’s the kind of thing dealt with in documents with the level of security that we are talking about here. It is completely INSANE that this man is not in prison, NOW, and that the whole place–and all of Trump’s residences are not being swept and everyone connected to them and him investigated. This is as serious as it gets.
I’ve said this before. I’ll say it again: a judge who delays action on this is not a serious person.
The Solution to the Trump Judge Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About
Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern
Slate
Legal analysts lit up social media on Monday in response to the broad and potentially devastating order by Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Donald Trump appointee to the Southern District of Florida, temporarily halting the criminal investigation of the former president and his alleged pilfering of classified documents. Her order further authorized a special master to identify and return the small fraction of materials seized in last month’s court-approved search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence that may belong to him. One analyst after another meticulously detailed the failings of Cannon’s reasoning: It was “untethered to the law,” “a political conclusion in search of a legal rationale,” “deeply problematic,” “laughably bad.” At some point, one truly runs out of euphemisms for lawless partisan hackery.
It’s possible to agree with every one of these criticisms but still find them less than satisfying. Because at the end of the day, no matter how much withering criticism she faces, Cannon still gets to put on the black robe and run interference for her benefactor. She will still get a standing ovation at some future Federalist Society gathering. She remains in control of this case. But it’s not just Cannon: Many smart lawyers also noted that the Justice Department now faces the unenviable task of having to appeal this decision up to higher courts that are filled with Trump appointees, which takes the sting out of the opprobrium: For all we know, the Trump-stacked 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or five radical justices on the Supreme Court may also greet her outrageous decision with a standing ovation.
So the problem is not just the extreme and heinous flaws in Cannon’s ruling. It’s also the Trump-shaped world in which Cannon operates, with impunity, which we will all have to endure for the foreseeable future. It’s the brutal reality that we may face a steady stream of depraved decisions like Cannon’s for the rest of our lives—and the pain of hearing from every quarter that nothing can be done to remedy it…
https://www.rsn.org/001/the-solution-to-the-trump-judge-problem-nobody-wants-to-talk-about.html
Yes!! Brilliant article and Dahlia Lithwick is one of the best journalists out there. (Truly, I’d love to see her on the education beat).
Folks like Trump and Cannon needed a lot of help to gain this kind of power, and in the run up to the 2016 election that help was readily supplied by the complicit folks – some of whom posted here — who endlessly amplified the right wing lie that having a far right Republican appointing lifetime judges did not matter. Their complicity is evident by the fact that they still won’t admit they were wrong. They still insist that having a far right judiciary was a minor issue when compared to the great progressive victory they achieved by defeating a Democrat and empowering the far right. Real progressives know they are wrong. Or right wing trolls.
We all know what happens when the far right has no accountability anymore. That’s what happened in Russia and Nazi Germany. And it is NEVER a “progressive victory”. It’s the worst possible thing for progressives.
Democrats will be saddled with a number of Trump appointees at various levels in the justice department for years to come. This is all part of the right’s desperate attempt to maintain minority rule in this country. The frustration felt at this point in time is just the beginning in a series of “kangaroo court” decisions that will be handed down all the way up to SCOTUS.
Can the DOJ appeal the decision to appoint?
Yes, they are weighing response now. Must respond by tomorrow evening.
But appeals take time which play right into the Putin puppet’s tiny hands. Add to that his bagman judge will likely not set a deadline for the “special master” to complete his/her work. He’s trying to run out the clock until his election deniers can steal the next Presidential contest. It may be most prudent for Garland to indict sooner than later, when it may be too late to preserve our besieged democracy.
Exactly. This decision is a disaster. It compounds what is already a total disaster. It’s appalling.
In other news: A tragic day. Can you even imagine where the Empire would have been without Her Majesty, over a period of 70 years, steadfastly standing around and waving?
Talk about how living in the right zip code can determine one’s life! I won’t be watching teevee news anytime soon.
Totally with you there, Greg. Watching Queen Elizabeth retrospectives is up there on my list with reading the collected laundry lists of Horace Walpole.
Agreed, Bob. She lived to a supernatural age of 96. The obituaries were already written. What did she do to deserve the acclaim? She was pretty, well dressed and spoke platitudes. Boring.
In a message to Aileen Cannon, today, the DOJ said, “The application of the injunction to classified records would . . . frustrate the government’s ability to conduct an effective national security risk assessment and classification review and could preclude the government from taking necessary remedial steps in light of that review — risking irreparable harm to our national security and intelligence interests.”
Exactly. She MUST do the right thing and rescind her order. Short of that, the appeals court MUST immediately act to overturn her. There is far, far too much at stake. This is serious business. I am not one to agree with Bill Barr about much of anything, but as he said yesterday, we’re not talking about an overview library book here.
Queen Elizabeth was a woman born into wealth but she was able to lead the country for many years and was highly respected even though she didn’t have any real political power.
Flags were lowered to half-staff across the country, with notice of the death posted to both Buckingham Palace and the royal website.
The closest the U.S. came to having royalty was Camelot.
We admire many presidents, at least at the beginning of their terms. We learn later that presidents do things that aren’t admirable.
Lyndon Johnson pulled up dogs by their ears. And then there’s Donald (“when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the pussy. You can do anything”) Trump.
Say this for Queen Elizabeth: she didn’t embarrass her country.
The Orange Buffoon is an embarrassment to this country. I believe he is demented because I’ve seen videos of Trump when he was in his 30’s. He spoke in complete sentences and used words that the current Trump doesn’t understand.
It’s an embarrassment to see what BBC posted. I don’t understand why anyone would support Trump. Nobody else could speak this way and become president.
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US election: Full transcript of Donald Trump’s obscene videotape…BBC
9 October 2016
US presidential candidate Donald Trump has been forced to apologise after a video emerged in which he made obscene comments about women.
In the footage, revealed by the Washington Post, Mr Trump is heard bragging to TV host Billy Bush about trying to have sex with a married woman. The clip, from 2005, was part of unaired footage ahead of Mr Trump’s appearance on US soap opera Days of Our Lives.
Here is the full transcript of the conversation:
Warning: the following text includes graphic language
Unknown: “She used to be great, she’s still very beautiful.”
Trump: “I moved on her actually. You know she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and fuck her, she was married.”
Unknown: “That’s huge news there.”
Trump: “No, no, Nancy. No this was [inaudible] and I moved on her very heavily in fact I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture. I moved on her like a bitch. I couldn’t get there and she was married. Then all-of-a-sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.”…
Trump: “Yeah that’s her with the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful… I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”…
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37595321
Boxers or briefs?
The Fairy Tale is over
The Fairy Tale is over
The waving Queen has passed
So bury her in clover
The Monarchy is gas
Though Charles assumes the throne
His brother is a paedo
And won’t let him alone
Appearing in a Spedo
The Queen has throne in the towel”
Seven decades on the throne
Thought she’d pinch it fast
Seven decades, hold the phone
Gas is all she passed
I’ll say this for Queen Elizabeth. She never embarrassed the English nation. She was apparently faithful to her husband. To our knowledge, she didn’t do drugs or get addicted to alcohol. If she smoked, it was never in public. She didn’t hurl insults at her critics. She loved her Corgis and horses. Compare her to Trump. No scandals, other than those of her children. I prefer her gracious platitudes to Trump’s bullying, boasting, and insulting.
People throughout the world (in Africa, India and elsewhere) were brutalized by the British crown under the rule of Queen Elizabeth, who never so much as apologized.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/09/after-queens-death-victims-british-imperialism-share-why-we-will-not-mourn
I didn’t know that Trump had called for an ‘immediate re-do of the 2020 election’ or for “his instatement as the rightful president of the U.S.” He is worse than what I could ever imagine. He is a raving lunatic.
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RollingStone : Trump Woke Up and Went on a 60-Post, QAnon-Fueled Social Media Spree
AUGUST 30, 2022
…On Monday, Trump who has been attempting to shore up his political base for a potential third presidential bid, called for an immediate re-do of the 2020 election or his instatement as the rightful president of the United States. His possibly illegal campaign-style activities have been overshadowed in recent weeks by the Justice Department’s investigation into the classified documents he hoarded at Mar-a-Lago and whether he may have violated the Espionage Act…
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-qanon-truth-social-meltdown-1234584590/ – Trump Woke Up and Went on a 60-Post, QAnon-Fueled Social Media Spree
The most troubling aspect of the DOJs findings is that some of the folders marked Top Secret were empty.
The documents in any or all of the nonempty folders could easily have been copied or photographed and even passed on to a third party and no one would ever be the wiser.
So I’d have to say that people should be just as concerned about the folders that were not empty as the ones that were.