Trump said Putin's smart.' I mean, he's taken over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I'd say that's pretty smart. He's taking over a country, really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people and just walking right in."
Former president Donald Trump on Friday revived a two-week-old controversy over his description of Hezbollah terrorist attackers as “very smart,” posting a column on social media that sought to defend his characterization of the group.
President Donald Trump praised North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un – a man who leads a government that outside observers say brutalizes and starves its own citizens – as someone who “loves his people.” Speaking with Voice of America’s Greta Van Susterenfollowing his historic summit in Singapore on Tuesday, Trump called Kim “funny” and “smart.”
“He’s got a great personality. He’s a funny guy, he’s very smart, he’s a great negotiator. He loves his people, not that I’m surprised by that,” Trump said. “I think that we have the start of an amazing deal. We’re going to denuke North Korea.”
A retired four-star Marine general on Wednesday excoriated President Donald Trump’s threats to use the military on protesters and his controversial church photo op on Monday, writing that his actions “may well signal the beginning of the end of the American experiment.”
Gen. John Allen, the former commander of American forces in Afghanistan and former special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS under the Obama administration, wrote in an op-ed for Foreign Policy that “to even the casual observer, Monday was awful for the United States and its democracy.”
His comments come after the President declared himself “your president of law and order” as peaceful protesters just outside the White House gates were dispersed with gas, flash bangs and rubber bullets, apparently so Trump could visit a nearby church. He remained at the boarded-up building for a matter of minutes before returning to the White House.
The episode followed nearly a week of protests across the country that at times have turned violent over the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis.
“Donald Trump isn’t religious, has no need of religion, and doesn’t care about the devout, except insofar as they serve his political needs. The President failed to project any of the higher emotions or leadership desperately needed in every quarter of this nation during this dire moment,” Allen wrote.
“We know why he did all this on Monday. He even said so while holding the Bible and standing in front of the church. It was about MAGA—’making America great again,’” he continued.
Allen told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday that he watched Monday’s events unfold “with horror, frankly.”
“That is what happens in authoritarian regimes. That is what happens in illiberal regimes” he continued. “It doesn’t happen in the United States, and we shouldn’t tolerate it.”
Allen’s comments echo the message of former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who said in a statement Wednesday that “we must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate.”
“At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society,” Mattis wrote.
Anyone with experience handling Top Secret information - which I did in the Marine Corps in Vietnam and during the Cold War - knows that you must be very careful handling the documents. You don't take them out of a secure area and move them to a storage box in your private home. Do that and you can land in jail.
Classified documents are closely held by appropriately trained people who hold security clearances. They maintain documents with three levels of classification - Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret. When a classified document is removed from its safe and secure locations, the person removing the document must have the appropriate security clearance, and a need to know. They must sign for the document and who signed for that information is retained. The documents are supposed to be returned expeditiously and a record kept of that return.
The White House maintains a SCIF (Secure Compartmented Information Facility). The US developed additional temporary SCIF's for Mar-a-Lago and for President Trump Tower, which would have been closed when the President left office. This enabled the President to read secure messages, and to maintain those documents in a secure location while vacationing. The SCIF can also be used for secure meetings and phone calls.
SCIF (Sensitive compartmented information facility)
When Donald Trump became president in 2017, a SCIF was set up at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, which he referred to as his Winter White House. Trump (at the head of the table with various cabinet members, advisers, and staffers) is seen here monitoring the Syrian cruise missile attack from the Mar-a-Lago SCIF.
SCIFs can be either permanent or temporary and can be set up in official government buildings (such as the Situation Room in the White House), onboard ships, in private residences of officials, or in hotel rooms and other places of necessity for officials when traveling.[1] Portable SCIFs can also be quickly set up when needed during emergency situations.[2]
Access
Access to SCIFs is normally limited to those individuals with appropriate security clearances.[3] Non-cleared personnel in SCIFs must be under the constant oversight of cleared personnel and all classified information and material removed from view to prevent unauthorized access.[4] As part of this process, non-cleared personnel are also typically required to surrender all recording, photographic and other electronic media devices. All of the activity and conversation inside is presumed restricted from public disclosure.[1][5]
And who doesn't keep a little light reading in the guest bathroom?
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President Trump's staff would have signed for and received Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret documents and messages and provided those documents to the President. After he read them he should have had his staff return the documents to the secure area, with a written record that they were returned.
No one of course is supposed to copy those documents, take photos of them, or keep them in their private offices or bedrooms. They should be returned expeditiously to a secure location. Failure to do so is a criminal offense.
The folks who maintained that classified information have logs of when and what documents were signed out by White House staff, and what and when the documents were returned. It is apparent that not all documents were returned.
It will be a simple investigation to interview under oath the people who maintained those documents and those who signed out for those documents. Failure to have returned those documents is a Federal offense with rather strict punishments.
From reporting it is clear that not all documents were returned. After requesting the return of the documents President Trump did return some documents. He did not return them all, however, resulting in a subpeona demanding the return of the documents. One of Trump's attorneys signed an affidavit guaranteeing that all documents were returned.
That was not the case. The recent search of Trump's home revealed that he had more classified material at his home, including Top Secret documents.
Any normal person doing this would find himself in very hot water and likely facing jail time. We will see if that happens with the former President.
Trump has offered a number of explanations:
1. The FBI planted the documents. The search was videotaped and this should be simple to verify. And the chain of custody where the documents were signed out and then signed back in can provide a double verification. Trump can blame the staffer who signed for the documents that were not returned.
2. Trump says he had a standing order that any document he took was automatically declassified. This is not how it works. If Trump decides he wished to declassify some information, his attorneys should have written the rationale for the declassification and inform the department that they propose to declassify the document. The agencies then have the opportunity to oppose the declassification if there are good reasons to keep the information a secret. And of course the context of the message counts here. If it was trully a momentous secret than he should not have declassified it.
The DOJ knows what documents that President Trump kept and that he says he declassified. They will likely examine the documents and if there was a simple reason for why he declassified them then that explanation may be acceptable. But this is unlikely. It is classified Top Secret if it "reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security."The agencies do not place TS on a document lightly.
18 U.S. Code § 793— "Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information."
The law penalizes "Whoever, lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document, writing, code book ... or note relating to the national defense" who "through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or erso be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed." It also penalizes someone who "willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it."
In this instance, the National Archives said it had been negotiating with Trump's team for the return of documents since last year, and Moss noted that Trump's lawyer acknowledged they met with Justice Department as recently as early June about records that were still missing. On Thursday, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News that Trump also received a federal grand jury subpoena demanding the return of sensitive documents the government believed he'd held onto.
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Why would anyone keep highly classified documents in their personal possession in their home, unless they were up to no good? We will wait to see what is in the documents.
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President Donald Trump on January 10, 2018, signing a national security bill that included harsher punishments for mishandling secret information.Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images
Donald Trump in 2018 signed a sweeping national security bill into law.
The bill increased punishments for those who mishandle classified information.
The measure is of note after the Mar-a-Lago raid, thought to be connected to government documents.
A bill that Donald Trump signed into law in 2018 could be used to punish the former president if he's found to have mishandled classified information after leaving office.
FBI agents on Monday raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, apparently as part on an investigation into whether Trump wrongly kept hold of classified material after he left office.
Bradley P. Moss, a national security attorney, told Insider that Trump could face five years in prison if he's found guilty under a national security bill that he signed as president.
Trump signed the bill, which made changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, into law in January 2018.
It upgraded the seriousness of wrongly moving classified material, turning it from a misdemeanor into a felony — and increasing the maximum sentence to five years, up from one.
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The FBI recovered 11 sets of classified documents while conducting the search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The Journal reviewed a three-page list of items that FBI agents took from the Palm Beach, Fla., property on Monday, revealing that they took about 20 boxes of items, binders of photos, a handwritten note and Trump’s grant of clemency to his former adviser Roger Stone, who was convicted in 2019 of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction of an official proceeding.
The list refers to one set of documents as “Various classified/TS/CSI documents,” meaning top secret/sensitive compartmentalized information. It states that FBI agents acquired four sets of top-secret documents, three sets of secret documents and three sets of confidential documents.
The FBI reportedly sought documents containing information about nuclear weapons in the search, but it is unclear if the agency recovered any. The Journal reported that the list did not contain any additional details about what information was in the classified documents.
NewsNation separately reported that FBI agents had found dozens of classified documents during their search of Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
The list reported by the Journal was included in a seven-page document that also includes the search warrant the FBI executed mentions information about the “President of France.”
The warrant shows agents planned to search “the 45 Office” and “all storage rooms and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available to be used by [the former president] and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings on the estate,” according to the Journal.
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Chapter 7. CLASSIFICATION LEVELS
INTRODUCTION
A classification level must be assigned to information when that information is determined to be classified. A classification level indicates the relative importance of classified information to national security and thereby determines the specific security requirements applicable to that information. Clearly defined classification levels are essential to an effective classification system.1
The U.S. classification of information system has three classification levels -- Top Secret, Secret, and Confidential -- which are defined in EO 12356.2 Those levels are used both for NSI and atomic energy information (RD and FRD). Section 1.1(a) of EO 12356 states that:
(a) National Security Information (hereinafter "classified information") shall be classified at one of the following three levels:
(1) "Top Secret" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.
(2) "Secret" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security.
(3) "Confidential" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security.
A few more things. Way back in the dark ages, when I was in the Marine Corps Reserves, our Classified information was tightly controlled, especially Top Secret Info. Each copy of the document was numbered 1 out of __X__ copies, and of course you were not to make copies of it or take photos of it. You read it if you had a need to know and then put it back in the proper safe in a facility set up for classified information. And you did not take notes on what was in the document and you did not share what was in the document with anyone who did not have a need to know.
The White House no doubt has such a facility, likely a very large room or rooms that are in affect a large safe where the classified information is kept. And there is one on Air Force One, and temporary facilitie were created and maintained at Donald Trump's residences at Mar A Lago and Trump Tower. And there are people, probably military, with Top Secret security clearances, who keep track of the documents when they are read and returned. And if President Trump did not return them, which seems likely, the Custodian would have told his chain of command. And the officers in charge probably did nothing, since the person who had the classified information was the President.
But now he is the former President. And the US Government wants its classified information back. And they will know exactly what is missing. And if President Trump no longer has those classified documents, he has some splainin to do.
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The ways you can move Secret and top Secret documents is described below. Note that none of them let you move it to your bedroom.
7-101 Top Secret Information
Top Secret information shall be transmitted only by:
a. Direct contact between appropriately cleared persons. b. A cryptographic system authorized by the Director, NSA, or a protected distribution system designed and installed to meet the requirements of National Communications Security Instruction 4009. This applies to voice, data, message, and facsimile transmissions. c. The Defense Courier Service (DCS) if material qualifies under the provisions of DoD Regulation 5200.33-R. The DCS may use a specialized shipping container as a substitute for a DCS courier on direct flights provided that the shipping container is of sufficient construction to provide evidence of forced entry, secured with a high security padlock and equipped with an electronic seal that would provide evidence of surreptitious entry. A DCS courier must escort the specialized shipping container to and from the aircraft and oversee its loading and unloading. This authorization also requires that the DCS develop procedures that address the protection of specialized shipping containers in the event a flight is diverted for any reason. d. Authorized DoD Component courier services; e. The Department of State Diplomatic Courier Service; f. Cleared U.S. military personnel and Government civilian employees specifically designated to carry the information who are traveling on a conveyance owned, controlled, or chartered by the U.S. Government or DoD contractors traveling by surface transportation; g. Cleared U.S. Military personnel and Government civilian employees specifically designated to carry the information who are traveling on scheduled commercial passenger aircraft within and between the United States, its Territories, and Canada. h. Cleared U.S. Military personnel and government civilian employees specifically designated to carry the information who are traveling on scheduled commercial passenger aircraft on flights outside the United States, its territories, and Canada. i. Cleared DoD contractor employees within and between the United States and its Territories provided that the transmission has been authorized in writing by the appropriate Cognizant Security Agency (CSA) or a designated representative.
7-102 Secret Information
Secret information may be transmitted by:
a. Any of the means approved for the transmission of Top Secret information; b. Appropriately cleared contractor employees provided that the transmission meets the requirements specified in DoD 5220.22-R and DoD 5220.22-M. c. On an exception basis, when applicable postal regulations (39.C.F.R.) are met, Agency Heads may, when an urgent requirement exists for overnight delivery to a DoD Component within the United States and its Territories, authorize the use of the current holder of the General Services Administration contract for overnight delivery of information for the Executive Branch. Any such delivery service shall be U.S. owned and operated, provide automated in-transit tracking of the classified information, and ensure package integrity during transit. The contract shall require cooperation with government inquiries in the even of a loss, theft, or possible compromise. The sender is responsible for ensuring that an authorized person will be available to receive the delivery and verification of the correct mailing address. The package may be addressed to the recipient by name. The release signature block on the receipt label shall not be executed under any circumstances. The use of external (street side) collection boxes is prohibited. Classified Communications Security Information, NATO, and foreign government information shall not be transmitted in this manner. d. U.S. Postal Service registered mail within and between the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; e. U.S. Postal Service Express Mail within and between the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The "Waiver of Signature and Indemnity" block on the U.S. Postal Service Express Mail Label 11-B may not be executed under any circumstances. The use of external (street side) Express Mail collection boxes is prohibited. f. U.S. Postal Service registered mail through Army, Navy, or Air Force Postal Service facilities outside the United States and its Territories, provided that the information does not at any time pass out of U.S. citizen control and does not pass through a foreign postal system or any foreign inspection; g. U.S. Postal Service and Canadian registered mail with registered mail receipt between U.S. Government and Canadian Government installations in the United States and Canada; h. Carriers cleared under the National Industrial Security Program who provide a Protective Security Service. This method is authorized only within the Continental United States (CONUS) when other methods are impractical, except that this method is also authorized between U.S. and Canadian government approved locations documented in a transportation plan approved by U.S. and Canadian government security authorities. i. Government and Government contract vehicles including aircraft, ships of the U.S. Navy, civil service-operated U.S. Naval ships, and ships of U.S. registry. Appropriately cleared operators of vehicles, officers of ships or pilots of aircraft who are U.S. citizens may be designated as escorts provided the control of the carrier is maintained on a 24-hour basis. The escort shall protect the shipment at all times, through personal observation or authorized storage to prevent inspection, tampering, pilferage, or unauthorized access. Observation of the shipment is not required during flight or sea transit, provided it is loaded into a compartment that is not accessible to any unauthorized persons or in a specialized secure, safe-like container. j. In exceptional circumstances, with the written approval of the recipient government security authorities, classified material up to an including Secret may be transmitted outside of the United States and its Territories in the hold of a cleared U.S. registered air carrier ( Civilian Reserve Air Fleet participant) without an appropriately cleared escort. The shipment must be sent between two specified points with no intermediate stops. The carrier must agree in advance to permit cleared and specifically authorized persons to observe placement and removal of the classified shipment from the air carrier. The shipment must be placed in a compartment that is not accessible to any unauthorized person or in the same type of specialized shipping as is prescribed in subparagraph c. above, for use by the DCS.
When documents are declassified, there obviously must be a paper trail. Otherwise all the agencies that hold the documents will still consider them classified.
Documents can be declassified because of the passage of time, usually 25 years, or because the information no longer needs to be classified. The documents then should be altered as shown below, noting that they are no longer classified and when and when they were declassified.
"They found these three mundane statutes: espionage and the two others ― obstruction. And they are trying to claim there is some sort of criminal activity." Alina Habba, Trump Attorney.
Taking Top Secret Documents out of a secure facility and letting them lie around is not mundane or an overdue library book. Two Trump attorneys made these crazy absurd claims.
The disclosure of Top Secret documents "reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security."
People who do this belong in jail. Period.
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I have considerable experience in handling classified information. I served 32 years, Regular and Reserve in the Marine Corps, and held a Top Secret clearance.
A few stories. In Vietnam I was handed an investigation over lost radio call signs and frequencies. The information was Secret. The Commanding General of 1st Marine Division found them at the Helipad, and gave them to his driver, who gave them to my Commanding Officer. My CO assigned me to do the investigation.
I interviewed the driver who was present when the General found the codes. It was obvious that the codes had been lost by a radio man boarding a previous helicopter. And they were only valid for one day, and would be changed the next day.
The Helipad was in the center of the 1st Marine Division, a secure area. The General would have found them soon after they were lost and therefore they were unlikely to have been discovered.
The General had, however, given the codes to his driver who did not have a security clearance, which is a violation. I wrote it that way in my investigation. My CO was not impressed and ordered me to eliminate that part of the report.
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On a training exercise in 29 Palms, California I issued frequencies and call signs to a number of officers. These were classified Secret - For Training Purposes and the validity was for 3 days. Two officers no longer had the codes. I took their formal statements, where they claimed that they destroyed them.
My senior Colonel told me that I had signed a document that said that I knew the codes had been destroyed. "No Sir," I said. The two officers signed that statement and I simply forwarded it on. Because the codes were for a training exercise and were already declassified no further action was taken.
The two examples above were classified Secret, but only for a matter of days, when they automatically were declassified.
I attended a week long school on the handling of classified information while in Vietnam. Like most officers I am horrified about how Top Secret information was handled at Mar A Lago. It can and should result in people going to jail.
William Barr, on Fox, says there's no legitimate reason for classified docs to be at Mar-a-Lago and doubts Trump declassified
I concur with former Attorney General Barr. Why in the world would former President Trump take classified material with him out of the White House? Some possibilities.
1. Souvenirs?
2. Because he could?
3. Decorate his 45 theme restaurant?
4. Show to impress people?
5. Give to foreign leaders?
6. Sell?
Giving or selling the documents is the most concerning. We don't know, of course, that this was done, but when someone improperly takes Top Secret information it is one of the possibilities that must be investigated.
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A few things that have not been in the news. Bear in mind, most of my experience is very dated, 25 years plus, but I think it is probably still valid and applies to the White House.
1. All Classified Documents are kept in a secure area that must meet very high standards.
2. When a document is taken out of the safe, someone must sign for it. A log of all transactions is kept.
3. When a document is returned it is logged back in.
4. All documents should have been returned and logged back in before President Trump left the White House.
5. Clearly not all were not returned.
6. Therefore the FBI knows precisely what documents were never returned.
7. The FBI can compare that list with the documents they recovered from Mar A Lago.
8. If there are documents missing they must look further.
9. They must ask the former President and his staff where they are.
10. We do not know if more documents are missing, but will find out soon enough. And the haphazard way this has been handled by President Trump and his staff make this seem possible.
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I have a Veteran friend who insists that President Trump declassified all the documents he took, therefore, no harm no foul. This is certainly incorrect. Declassification of high level documents is a tedious process. The top staff of the department that created the classification must be contacted in writing, and asked for their recommendation. They will respond in writing, listing their objections if they have them, which they likely will if they recently classified them.
The President can then declassify them. Since he will only have one of the documents in his position, he must notify the other agencies that hold the document so they can remove the classification. The documents are noted by number, say 3 of 13.
All declassified documents must be removed from their colored classified binders. Each subsequent page has the Classification on the top and bottom page lined out, Documents must be declassified page by page, If the document is TS/SCI [Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information] it must be noted on each line. The document then is marked declassified by the authorizing agency. Judging from the photo the Classified binders were not removed. We don't know if the actual documents were declassfied, but the investigators will find out. Example below:
You can see how absurd it would be for a President to declassify documents and not tell anyone. No one in the Federal Government would know it was declassified.
The FBI has all the documents recovered from Mar A Lago and they will know if there are missing documents. As part of their investigation they will know what is in the documents. They should be able to see if there is information that is not particularly concerning - and items that are very important and should not be revealed under any circumstances. Example - Nuclear information, top secret weapon designs, etc. If this kind of information was taken it begins to look very bad for former President Trump - and the country.
Jury finds Trump liable for sexual abuse, awards accuser $5M
NEW YORK (AP) — A jury found Donald Trump liable Tuesday for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding her $5 million in a judgment that could haunt the former president as he campaigns to regain the White House.
The verdict was split: Jurors rejected Carroll’s claim that she was raped, finding Trump responsible for a lesser degree of sexual abuse. The judgment adds to Trump’s legal woes and offers vindication to Carroll, whose allegations had been mocked and dismissed by Trump for years.
Donald Trump Got a Tax Break For Stiffing Contractors
"A lot has already been written about the fact that Trump’s multiple bankruptcies stiffed a long-list of small businesses, from carpet suppliers to chandelier distributors to cabinet-makers for slot machines. What hasn’t been reported before is that those unpaid bills were also used to swell Trump’s future tax deductions. In other words, Trump not only stiffed many contractors, he also created a tax benefit off the backs of the tradesmen who built his casinos and skyscrapers."
Tale of Two Presidents. WWI Army Veteran Harry Truman, not a wealthy guy, went broke but paid off his creditors over twenty years and suffered greatly. Trump, a very rich guy, went bankrupt, stiffed his contractors, and got a big tax break.
