NEW: A binder containing highly classified information about Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election has been reported missing pic.twitter.com/0crLGiYegY
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 15, 2023
Helluva story @CNN. Good work. I'm old enough to remember when Trump & his cult said Hillary Clinton must be locked up for mishandling emails. Here we have a trove of sensitive intel re Russia & sources and methods that went missing from the Trump WH!https://t.co/v9PBIk6nin
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) December 15, 2023
Per CNN, “The mystery of the missing binder: How a collection of raw Russian intelligence disappeared under Trump”:
A binder containing highly classified information related to Russian election interference went missing at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, raising alarms among intelligence officials that some of the most closely guarded national security secrets from the US and its allies could be exposed, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Its disappearance, which has not been previously reported, was so concerning that intelligence officials briefed Senate Intelligence Committee leaders last year about the missing materials and the government’s efforts to retrieve them, the sources said.
In the two-plus years since Trump left office, the missing intelligence does not appear to have been found.
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 binder was last seen at the White House during Trump’s final days in office. The former president had ordered it brought there so he could declassify a host of documents related to the FBI’s Russia investigation. Under the care of then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, the binder was scoured by Republican aides working to redact the most sensitive information so it could be declassified and released publicly.
The Russian intelligence was just a small part of the collection of documents in the binder, described as being 10 inches thick and containing reams of information about the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. But the raw intelligence on Russia was among its most sensitive classified materials, and top Trump administration officials repeatedly tried to block the former president from releasing the documents.
The day before leaving office, Trump issued an order declassifying most of the binder’s contents, setting off a flurry of activity in the final 48 hours of his presidency. Multiple copies of the redacted binder were created inside the White House, with plans to distribute them across Washington to Republicans in Congress and right-wing journalists.
Instead, copies initially sent out were frantically retrieved at the direction of White House lawyers demanding additional redactions…
Click the link for a whole lot of interactive information on the Who, Where, What of this intelligence heist.
Trump Crime Cartel Open Thread: Where’s the *Binder*, Mark?Post + Comments (99)