Question: Is there any legitimate, not-suspicious reason that a former president of the United States would take information about a foreign countrys nuclear capabilities from the White House with him when he left, stash it in his home, and refuse to give it back despite being asked to do so on numerous occasions?

Answer: No, there isnt! Not a single one! Which is why it is incredibly damning to learn that Donald Trump, whose entire life has been a series of incredibly damning moments for which he should probably do hard time, allegedly did just that.

Yes, on Monday night, The Washington Post reported that a document describing a foreign governments military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities was among the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago during the FBIs August 8 search. If youre wondering if its possible that such a document could simply include low-level, not closely guarded details about another countrys nukes, and this whole thing isnt actually as bad as it sounds, we regret to inform you that is not the case. (In fact, its probably even a bigger deal than any of us can currently comprehend.) According to The Post, some of the documents uncovered during last months search detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them and only the president, some members of his Cabinet or anear-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special-access programs. For that reason, such records, per The Post, 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.

As in: not at a for-profit country club that anyone willing to pony up the initiation fee, or their guest, or a rando off the street asking to use the pool can walk through. Its also why, when the National Archives removed 15 boxes of documents this past January and the FBI came back for more in June, theyd hoped that was everythingparticularly in light of the fact that a lawyer for Trump had signed a written statement claiming all classified material had been returned to its rightful owner, i.e., the U.S. government.

In a statement, Christopher Kise, an attorney for the ex-president, did not address the fact that Trump had stashed information about a foreign powers nuclear capabilities at Mar-a-Lago, or that he held on to it despite a subpoena from a grand jury demanding the return of all documents or writings in the custody or control of Donald J. Trump and/or the Office of Donald J. Trump bearing classification markings, including Top Secret, and the lesser categories of Secret and Confidential. Instead, he selectively decried the leaks about the case, saying they continue with no respect for the process nor any regard for the real truth, claiming the damage to public confidence in the integrity of the system simply cannot be underestimated.

On Monday, a Trump-appointed judge, Aileen Cannon, granted the ex-presidents request for a special master to conduct a third-party review of the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. In a move condemned in the harshest terms by basically anyone with a law degreeincluding former Trump attorney general Bill BarrCannon also blocked prosecutors from continuing to use the documents in their criminal investigation until the review is complete.

Back in November 2020, after Trump lost the presidential election, current and former government officials sounded the alarm on the possibility he would reveal valuable, classified information to further his own interests. John Fitzpatrick, a former intelligence officer and expert on the systems used to protect state secrets, told The Washington Post that the sort of information Trump was liable to have picked up on during his time in office includedwait for itspecial military capabilities, details about cyberweapons and espionage, the kinds of satellites the United States uses and the parameters of any covert actions that, as president, only Trump had the power to authorize. Assessing the possibility that he might do something untoward with that intelligence, David Priess, a former CIA officer, told the outlet, Anyone who is disgruntled, dissatisfied or aggrieved is a risk of disclosing classified information, whether as a current or former officeholder. Trump certainly fits that profile.

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Trump Reportedly Had Information About a Foreign Governments Nuclear Secrets at Mar-a-Lago, and Yeah, Thats Exactly as Bad as It Sounds - Vanity Fair