Trump’s 'lack of respect' for U.S. security was constantly on display at Mar-a-Lago: reporter
Revelations being unearthed about the document scandal involving former President Donald Trump show a cavalier disregard for America's national security, experts said Monday
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Monday, former FBI agent Peter Strzok and Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig voiced concern about who Trump was showing the classified documents that were found inside his Mar-a-Lago home. The Washington Post reported Sunday that he was displaying them to political donors.
Strzok complained that new evidence reveals evidence of intent on keeping the documents and obstructing investigations about them.
Wallace said the Sunday report gave fresh evidence that Trump knew the documents were at his home, and that he was hiding them from the FBI.
It's an "absolutely harrowing prospect when you think back to all the reporting you and your colleagues have done about what was found there. I mean, the incredibly sensitive nuclear information, other countries' very closely held state secrets," recalled Wallace. "
Leonnig said that there is a key importance in securing the information that Trump had and that there was a very clear lack of concern over national security.
"As we reported in the Washington Post some months ago, Donald Trump wanted to tweet a picture of an Iranian missile," Leonnig continued. "He wanted to sort of brag about his access to this information. It was as if, you know, he got some sort of prestige and reputational value, some bragging rights really, to be able to have this.
"You may remember, Nicolle, we wrote about an instance at Mar-a-Lago out on his beautiful veranda where he was entertaining a head of state and talking about all sorts, all manner of incredibly sensitive national security matters, essentially at a cocktail party. You know, this is a veranda that's public, full of his guests, some of whom could be eavesdropping, and he is having this conversation in the open air in Palm Beach. This lack of respect is an issue."
She went on to cite an interview Trump gave to Fox's Sean Hannity, in which he claimed he had every right to have the documents. He cited the government paying former President Richard Nixon $18 million for some records.
"It sort of, you know, defies reason how he's thinking about, again, government and presidential records, things that are governed by federal law and that he was told in a subpoena in the spring of 2022 he had to return," said Leonnig.
"I want to reference one more important piece of information that can't be underscored enough and that is when viewers wonder about how big a deal some of these records were. Seasoned national security investigators who were tasked with reviewing these records after the raid at Mar-a-Lago, after FBI agents reluctantly were instructed they had to go down there, search for any more classified records. After that moment, these investigators are going through the records and realize they lack the clearance to look at them. That's how serious some of this material was, it was under special access programs that only a cabinet-level official can authorize individuals one by one to review."
Watch the conversation below or at the link here.
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