It disappoints me when the people the highest offices keep breaking the most basic rules that pertain to the handling of classified information.
Protect Classified information – there are rules!
There are several important issues going on in the national discourse. Today, we’ll focus on both U.S. Presidents’ debacles in regard to the mishandling of classified information. A few days ago, I wrote about the fragmentation of the U.S. Republican Party. Later on, I’ll write about the limitations in the U.S. Democratic party in the near term and there is plenty to talk about there, too. But, today, I want to talk about integrity and security. Particularly as the last two Presidents of the United States are facing investigation due to mishandled classified information. And, yes, that is a huge deal and there should be investigations and accountability in either case. Nobody is above the law when it comes to the security of a nation.
Let’s start with some context.
What I will not do in this article will be speaking about the actual contents of classified information nor examples of it. But what I will do is articulate why it is imperative to safeguard information and how this might be akin to proprietary information in the private sector. In other words, information gets a limited distribution based on the risk that it would cause if the wrong person can use this information in a manner that is not authorized.
Classified information- when it comes to a government- any government is information that could cause any of several degrees of damage to their national security if it would be compromised. Proprietary information when it comes to the private sector is information that could result in having a competitor give an advantage over their business practices. In both cases I am oversimplifying but I want to drive the point home that information gets protected for a reason and if the information is compromised then there can be very real consequences. And, sometimes, this information can only serve as means to validate something an adversary of a competitor was already suspecting.
In any position of trust- being it government or private sector- some people will be afforded a level of access based on whatever their job description requires. For example, if you work in a KFC restaurant the personnel in the franchised restaurants will likely get training on how to run the machines and prepare some of the food, etc. However, they are not going to receive the access to their secret recipe. That information is likely guarded very closely and only very high executives and other key people in charge of procuring the ingredients might have access to see it. I will never know; I don’t work at KFC and I don’t ever plan on learning the recipe – even though I do enjoy treating myself to some KFC every now and then.
But what if a competitor would get a hold of this recipe? They would possibly drive KFC out of business and, since it was the specific blend and proportions of otherwise readily available ingredients, whatever gives it that unique flavor.
With that context in mind, when it comes to government information that gets classified it is because an adversary could use this information against their people. Getting a security clearance is not a right, it is a privilege, and it is based on Trustworthiness, Loyalty, and Character. If any of those are negatively impacted then the access to this information will be revoked. With great risk comes great responsibility. Therefore any person who has access to information that is not for public release will likely have to sign paperwork that legally binds them to protect said information.
In government- when it comes to unclassified information- there are documents that are signed by all personnel, and these documents articulate punitive actions for mishandling information. Privacy Act information, for example. This is information that includes Personally Identifiable Information, or PII. If a person who is privy to that information becomes compromised then that they could face a steep fine, jail, or both. Then it is obvious to ascertain that the higher the level of sensitivity of information, the more paperwork will be required to articulate in black and white why this information should be protected AND what the consequences for mishandling this information will be. Common sense.
Same thing for private sector. If a person is working with an entity and this requires them to get access to proprietary information, and the party that is given access betrays their trust, then likely a lawsuit or other legal action will be taken against the person who betrayed the trust. And, yes, likely there would be legal documents that will articulate the need to protect that information.
That’s why it is important to start the process by limiting the amount of people who can have access to any information that is not intended for public consumption. In the United States, compromising classified information can lead to criminal prosecution. At a minimum, an investigation will be conducted in order to figure out what was the scope of the compromise. And, yes, this can be a very lengthy and expensive process because information can be mishandled in many different ways.
For instance, the question that will lead any other question will be who had access to this information originally? How was this information stored and how was it safeguarded 24/7? Any gaps of time where this information could have been exposed to somebody will be closely scrutinized. But that is not the end since all of the people who had access to that information will have to be scrutinized, too. Why? Because information also resides in the memories of a person. It might not be typed in a computer, or captured in a photograph, or any other media- even a doodle on a napkin- but it will be in the memory of a person’s brain. That’s why information gets safeguarded in the first place, and the documents are signed to ensure people know the consequences for betraying that trust.
In other words, it is not just about if it was an email, a document, a folder, a binder, a book, etc. It is more about the fact that somebody might have seen something they were not authorized to view. And, from there, the million-dollar question ensues. What do these unauthorized viewers plan on doing with that information? Some might understand the significance of it, some might not, and they may just gossip about it as if it was something to boost their ego for a few minutes. And I am not kidding about the latter. Information gets limited distribution because not everybody has the maturity to handle important information- plain and simply put. That’s why proprietary information, as well as classified information, has to have a process to ensure trust will be maintained. You cannot do that if the information is freely available and subject to misinterpretation.
I’ll give you an example of why we cannot just leave some information out there, it is because even with topics of empirical fact there will be people who will choose to tergiversate reality into something that is not true. There are people who assert that the planet is flat, or there are people who assert that gravity does not exist, or that evolution is false. All these science facts are then turned into “belief” systems in their mind but all those examples I mentioned are not beliefs. We don’t need belief in a spherical Earth, or that gravity is real, or that evolution is scientifically sound. You either understand WHY these are facts or you do not understand. Belief has nothing to do with it. Facts are impervious to beliefs.
Presidents Mishandling Material
If you have been paying attention in the last several months, you’ll remember that former President Trump had hundreds of highly classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago residence. This ensured a raid to his house in Florida by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in September 2022. Why? There were documents of some of the highest levels of classification found in an unsecured space at his house, that’s why. This was after several months of the National Archives requesting Trump to return these documents. Trump’s lawyers and spokespersons stated that everything was returned. That was obviously not a statement of fact. Hence the raid.
There were also other classified documents found in other Trump residences. So, this was more than just a matter of mistakenly carrying documents. Let’s start with an important realization: classified information- even the lowest levels of classified information- can only be stored in secured locations and there are very specific containers approved for their storage and guidelines for destruction. I won’t go into detail but the people that are attributed the privilege of working with any type of sensitive information know that there are very stringent rules.
Which begs the question, was Trump physically carrying all those boxes full of classified material from the White House and transporting them all the way into his residence in Florida after his presidency? Or, were those documents carried over there during his presidency? In other words, WHEN were those documents moved over there? And further, why were they not stored in a secured facility? The facilities I’m referring to are called SCIFs which stands for Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facilities. I’m sure there has to be an approved government facility somewhere for him to use in Florida if push comes to shove without participating in storage mental gymnastics. And no, a house or a resort does not qualify as such. These are areas that have to meet very stringent rules regarding building construction and a bunch of other requirements, and they have to be certified and inspected. Obviously, Mar-a-Lago does not meet these requirements, especially just due to the sheer number of people coming in and out of this place, and the fact is that a private residence does NOT qualify as a SCIF.
Also, how long were these hundreds of files left unattended? And how many people had access to the space where they were improperly stored? Even somebody opening the marked classified folder without authorization is already illegal. It is much worse if they actually read its contents or, even worse, took photos of its contents. And from there, who else has seen this information in such an unauthorized manner? My concern at first hearing the news of the raid was this: Is this information already being viewed by an adversarial force? So it is a huge deal, no matter what way you slice it, or try to downplay it.
Let’s say for the sake of argument that Trump, despite being the holder of the highest office of the land, for whatever reason was incredibly incompetent about understanding the sensitivity of these documents despite the fact that he would have to sign a bunch of documents stating that he understood that fact before he was even allowed to view any of those documents, let alone get physical access to them. Then my question is directed to his security staff. What the hell, People? They, too, should have been subjected to the same level of scrutiny to even have been that close to those documents, let alone move them. Before you can move classified documents from one place to the other, you also need additional documents to show that you’re authorized to do so. This is what is known as a courier. Who was the courier for all of these documents? I established- I don’t assess- that Trump physically moved these boxes full of classified documents. Then who did, and under what authority? In other words, it is extremely naïve to think it was the doing of only one person at fault. A lot of safeguards were violated in order to have those documents show up in Trump’s house.
Also, once you’re no longer president you have no need to know that information anyway, and NEVER gain access to certain levels of classified information, unless under a very narrow scope. But this never includes having highly classified information in your house. That’s not a thing. And even if a President wants to declassify information, this is a very lengthy process. And yes, I emphasize PROCESS. And guess what? Some information might never be declassified if it is deemed sensitive enough by people who actually know about this stuff. Therefore, a person who only had very low understanding of how to handle this classified material would have been advised by others- who are very well versed on security classification- not to move this material to Mar-a-Lago at all. In other words, career government employees would have- or SHOULD have- not allowed this to happen.
There is another huge fail worth mentioning: classified information is supposed to be serialized and is subject to auditing and ensuring it is not compromised, includes the chain of custody of where it was originated, who read it, how it is stored, and possibly how it will inevitably be destroyed. And, yes, it should be obvious to understand that the higher the level of classification, the higher the scrutiny required. There are stringent controls. Were all these controls just ignored by the former President and his staff? Obviously, yes- that’s why Mar-a-Lago was raided by the FBI. The problem for us in the public is that we still don’t know what the potential level of compromise on this information is. That’s very disturbing and potentially extremely dangerous to our national security.
This cavalier attitude against safeguarding this material could very well mean that at least some of this information may have been copied, photographed, or otherwise reside in the minds of somebody who was not authorized to read, view, or even have been in the presence of these documents. Why is there no more public outrage on this? I cannot understand but I, for one, am very concerned. This is by far the highest level of disregard towards classified information in the history of the United States of America.
However, this- as many others have been politicized- has become another “opinion” point for pundits and partisan politicians. Let me be clear, this is not subject to “opinion”, it is a cold, hard fact of massive failure from Trump’s staff. As I said, if Trump was not smart enough to safeguard classified information for whatever reason, or decided to blatantly disregard all the established regulations surrounding the access, control, dissemination, transportation, storage, and safeguarding of classified information, then SOMEBODY in this staff was supposed to know or remind him about this.
What’s the takeaway?
Bottom line, hundreds of highly classified documents did not just show up out of the blue in Mar-a-Lago and his other properties. Somebody had to print them, get them in folders, sign for them, transport them, and put them wherever they were found. Who was- or were- the person(s) responsible for doing this? That’s what I would like to know. Also, why was Trump unaware that there were classified documents in his house? Classified information is not the same as receiving junk mail and letting it pile up. Classified information has a very low shelf life, if you will. You see it, and you store it in the appropriate place. Period. It does not get to vegetate in limbo as things get piled in an attic somewhere. Somebody needed to have positive control of when that information was printed, and when it was moved, and throughout the entire time it was sitting there. Chances are that’s why the FBI and the National Archives were able to figure out that the material was missing.
The question remains- while the material was missing, how many unauthorized people laid eyes on that information? By the way, it should be very easy to narrow down who was able to move this information into Mar-a-Lago. The higher the level of information, the fewer the people authorized to see it, and even fewer to actually move it. Who moved it? This person should have answers to a few questions from the FBI. Also, if this person(s) who ended up moving did not have this privilege, then we have a bigger problem, and that likely falls under statutes for the espionage act.
However, during this time, I saw- with disbelief- as many Republicans in office downplayed this massive failure by the Trump administration. I don’t care if you’re Democrat or Republican. Classified information has safeguards, which can even include the stuff that lives in a person’s mind. For instance, if a person gets captured by an adversary and is forced to divulge information, the FBI already knows what the adversary might have learned from them. Why or how? Because there are checks and balances about what information a person is privy to. If a person is in the up and up, then national security remains safe. But when something gets compromised in a manner as badly as in this particular situation, it is very hard to know who has gained unauthorized access to information that was considered even too sensitive for many people with high security clearances.
Yes, even investigators could not view all this information they found because it was too highly classified- to the point that they, themselves, were not privy to even open the folder. And, of course, they abided by those rules because they are honorable and law-abiding people. But, that’s just another layer to this problem as to how many people who did not abide by this rule, had an opportunity to view or even disseminate this material?
The battle between the National Archives and Trump has been going on essentially since the time he left the White House in January 2021! Do the math- from January 2021 to September 2022, when the raid took place. That’s more than one year and seven months. This provided ample opportunity for compromise, and ample opportunity for Trump to otherwise do the right thing and promptly return the material. How is this not the biggest scandal in the history of the United States?
The Republican party, at large, and many Trump supporters downplayed this situation. Even Trump himself downplayed it in such a cavalier way. And, although there are criminal investigations, the court of public opinion still was largely lenient on Trump’s mishandling of this material. For the rest of the country, the story has sort of faded away as “one more crazy thing” out of the million instances of crazy news during the Trump era. And, that’s concerning on its own right. In either case, Trump was fighting, misdirecting, and downplaying the issue the entire time. And, it was not until he was forced to comply that he even spoke up about it. That defiant attitude even led to legal cases that went up to the highest court and, still, the story is not done on this issue- not by a long shot. But, in the minds of most Americans, this entire situation has been forgotten.
Fast forward to January 2023 and incumbent President Joe Biden is now also embroiled in the mishandling of classified information. Although he’s been cooperating and admitting scrutiny for this situation, this is still not a good thing. I’ve mentioned before, I don’t lean left nor right. I hold every side accountable based on their merits. Therefore, the same thing I mentioned before applies to this situation. Since most of the documents found in Biden’s residences were from the time that he was Vice President, then it begs the question: who transported this information? Who was the courier?
I realize that people in high levels of government will likely be privy to equally high levels of classified information on a regular basis, and that this likely needs a courier to bring in this material to the former Vice President (VP) to read, but the same principle applies: A person who is appointed to courier information gets it to the VP, the VP reads the information, and then the courier takes it back to a secure space. What is the disconnect? How does information get misplaced? Especially during the time the former VP was a private citizen.
I’m glad President Biden is cooperating with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the National Archives, but that’s exactly what needs to happen. There is no fighting this issue but I’m not sure what repercussions will ensue. But, not stone walling the effort is in very stark contrast to Trump’s aftermath of the documents being discovered in his residence. As there are open investigations on both, I’m sure the country will learn what the verdict will be about all these mishandlings of classified information. Each case should be given its due attention. These are two separate cases and there are unique circumstances to each. But, in the meantime, I would like the investigators to think about this- they probably are, but it’s worth mentioning:
- Who were the official couriers for Trump and Biden, respectively?
- What documents did the couriers have in their security file that allowed them to handle that information, and to what level?
- Who authorized the transportation and storage of these documents?
- Why were these documents not returned to their proper storage, or authorized (controlled and serialized) for destruction after they were presented to Trump and Biden, respectively?
- What was the culture of security in the Trump, as well as the Obama administration, when it came to handling, storing, and couriering of classified material?
- What other documents remain unaccounted for from the Trump, or the Obama, era? Follow-up question- were the documents found in Biden’s residence unaccounted for? We know many, in Trump’s case, were accounted for- hence the raid. However, I am willing to bet some remain unaccounted for.
- Are audits on all the classified documents moving from the Obama and Trump White House being properly serialized as far as chains of custody? I realize that there are likely mountains of classified information when it come to the White House and staff, but that’s why there is a system to account for that. In other words, get document, read document, store document in an authorized manner. It’s not a hard concept. It only gets hard if people don’t respect the system.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, if they wanted to make this situation an example to paint Biden as The Boogieman, they lost that leverage. Why? Because they did not hold Trump to the same standard at the onset of his own fiasco. Also, Trump’s stonewalling of the return of the documents that resulted in the FBI raid and the many legal actions that followed demonstrated a much different paradigm than what Biden is showing right now. Biden is cooperating, Trump did not cooperate. Can’t argue with that because there are literally court filings about this. It’s not subject to debate, but it was downplayed by Trump and his allies. And that’s when the Republicans lost leverage months before they tried to accuse Biden. If they would have held Trump accountable from the get-go, then they would have the leverage today in this case. In other words, a self-inflicted wound was made by trying to politicize this issue when it came to Trump. Funny how that works, huh?
I don’t know what the DOJ will do when it comes to Biden, but we know that special counsels and action is being taken as it has been reported to the entire country. The Biden White House and his lawyers are cooperating. Still, it doesn’t justify the mishandling of classified information. I plan on doing a follow up on this but, meanwhile, I want to drive the point that correct is correct, and wrong is wrong.
Mishandling classified information is always a big deal. Can people make mistakes? Sure, but there are consequences for mistakes. But, in the end, it is not so much how you fall but how you recover that ultimately matters. And, the contrast between Trump and Biden is very stark in the aftermath of these findings. It does not cast either of them in a good light, but one is less flattering that the other. Meanwhile, Republicans who downplayed Trump’s mishandling of classified information are best advised to keep their opinions to themselves because doing otherwise is plain hypocrisy, and that is also a betrayal of trust. Why? Because it is showing, in a de-facto manner, that they are not well versed on how to properly handle classified information, themselves. In other words, condoning or downplaying the mishandling of classified material in a partisan manner affects THEIR Trustworthiness, Loyalty, and Character. My humble advice is to just let the legal system go to work on, both, Trump and Biden. Any opinions that are not about accountability for BOTH of them is equally just noise.
And, by BOTH, I mean to include the entire staff that was responsible for handling that information for either President. As I said before, it is very unlikely that Trump and Biden carried those documents, themselves. If they did, shame on them for mishandling the security of the country. If they didn’t, then we have to remember that we, as citizens, do not own any classified information. This information remains government property, and it must be safeguarded with special procedures because the complexity of national security is not only enormous, but it is multidimensional.
I am just as curious as you are regarding how this will all play out in the end. My intent is for people to realize that this topic is a big deal, and although the actual information that was compromised is something we’ll hopefully never get to see directly, there is a reason why information is designated in a way to protect us all. My fear is that, if it fell in the wrong hands already, then our entire national security could be at risk. And that should be a wakeup call to anybody handling these cases to reach the truth and scope of damage for this mishandling. HLC