After the FBI seized secret White House documents from Donald Trump, a former senior intelligence official revealed to NBC about a serious incident three years ago.
During the raid on Donald Trump’s Florida estate last week, the FBI seized numerous classified documents of different classification levels. According to the list of confiscated items released a few days ago, among the documents the former president allegedly took from the Oval Office to Mar-a-Lago are documents classified as “confidential,” “secret,” and “top secret.” were. Some even carried the “Top Secret/SCI” label, which means they can only be viewed in secure government facilities. By taking and storing these papers, which according to the US newspaper “Washington Post” also include documents on nuclear weapons, Trump may have violated several laws, including the US Espionage Act.
Donald Trump tweeted top secret satellite image
The 76-year-old’s lax handling of state secrets is nothing new. This is shown particularly impressively by an incident on August 30, 2019. After a launch vehicle exploded at the Iranian spaceport in Semnan the day before, Trump wrote on his Twitter channel, which was not yet blocked at the time: “The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during involved in the final launch preparations at the Semnan Launch Base in Iran. I wish Iran all the best and good luck in clarifying what happened.” He also posted a satellite image that was supposed to show the destroyed launch pad.
The then President’s tweet caused quite a stir. Experts criticized the fact that the photo most likely came from a secret satellite or a drone and that Trump had revealed the spying capabilities of the United States with the publication. A former senior intelligence official with first-hand knowledge now has that guess confirmed to NBC News and the US broadcaster described how the posting came about.
The president’s intelligence briefing that day included a photograph of one of America’s most powerful spy satellites — an image with a resolution far exceeding anything on the commercial market, the source said. The recording showed the consequences of a failed missile launch in Iran. “We had this picture of the Iranian missile exploding, and it was exquisite intelligence, and he didn’t even wait. As soon as we showed it to him, he said, ‘Hey, I’m tweeting this.'”
Then-CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire tried to dissuade Trump from the tweet, pointing out that the US had spent billions of dollars developing space imaging capabilities, he said the former secret service agent continues. “You can’t do that. If you publish that, they’ll see what our ability is,” the directors appealed to the president. However, he remained unmoved and replied: “Listen, I’m the president, I can release everything.”
Trump’s then-National Security Advisor, John Bolton, also confirmed the incident to NBC: “The President tweeted a photo of an Iranian missile launch site […] and everyone realized it was a top-secret image from space,” Bolton, who was in Poland on the day, told the broadcaster. “He tweeted it out, and of course that, by definition, declassified it, but also showed what can happen when such an image, even in a Twitter attachment, can be analyzed by foreign intelligence agencies.”
“Trump didn’t seem to understand”
Bolton and others familiar with the matter said the incident was emblematic of Trump’s thinking, according to the report. Accordingly, the President and persons close to him were of the opinion that they had the authority to bring and keep documents classified by the FBI as top secret in Mar-a-Lago. “He didn’t spend time understanding what made something a secret and what we protect,” a second former senior intelligence official told the broadcaster.
According to Bolton and Doug London, a former CIA official who helped compile the president’s briefing material, Trump more often wanted to keep top-secret pictures, spreadsheets, or other documents. “The President had a habit of asking for sensitive documents, and from time to time he did, and we didn’t know what happened to them,” Bolton said. “And that was always a concern because he didn’t really understand the risks of sources and methods and other dangers that come with leaking classified information and that it could get to the wrong people.”
“If he decided he liked something he saw, he had to be wrested from it,” added London. To counteract this, the staff responsible for the briefings would have enlarged pictures to poster size so that Trump could not take them with him. After the incident with the Iran photo, high-ranking intelligence officials even agreed never again to bring top-secret pictures into the Oval Office, another intelligence official reported to the broadcaster. Trump “didn’t behave as if he felt obligated to protect secrets. He didn’t seem to understand that.”
Posting the satellite photo of the Iranian launch pad wasn’t the only time Trump made headlines by leaking classified information: In May 2017, the president told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Oval Office that Islamic State terrorists were using stolen airport security equipment to test a bomb that could be hidden in electronic devices and planted in an airplane cabin unnoticed. Trump even named the IS-controlled city in Syria where the secret services had obtained the information.
And in February 2017, Trump discussed with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on a terrace in Mar-a-Lago the joint response to a recent North Korean missile test – before the eyes and ears of the other guests of the golf club. One club member even snapped several photos of the two heads of state and their staff reviewing documents and working on their laptops, using cell phones as flashlights. The guest then published the pictures on Facebook.
Sources: NBC News, “New York Times”, CNN, National Public Radio