Former CIA director John Brennan addressed the national security implications of Donald Trump's documents scandal Thursday – particularly after the Washington Post's reporting that the former president had his staff move the files the day before the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago home.
Sue Gordon, the former deputy director of National Intelligence, told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace in Aug. 2022, that Trump has an agenda, in her experience with him.
"And he will use whatever is at his disposal to advance that," she said. "The problem we have here is that, depending on what agenda issues forth, he has had at his disposal, for a long period of time, information that if he used that information to advance an agenda item, it could have devastating consequences to national security.
"But I can't think of a simpler way to say why I think that this moment is so difficult. That's because there is no justification and knowing who he is, and that he doesn't fully understand, but he may not decide to protect if he wanted to do something different."
Brennan agreed, saying that the stakes are extremely high in this case. The concern that the panel discussed is the "why" factor in the Trump document scandal. One panelist said that at the same time, Trump's lawyer, Boris Epshteyn, tried to stop Tim Parlatore from checking for documents at Trump's Bedminster golf course – months before Trump was set to hold the first LIV golf tournament there.
"It is quite clear that Donald Trump's retention of these documents was quite purposeful," Brennan said. "And with an aim that is still unknown. How he was going to leverage the information in those documents that contain some of the most sensitive secrets of the U.S. intelligence and government. What would he do? What has he done already?"
"The potential compromise of sources and methods, if you look at the classification markings, the code words on those documents. Some of the most sensitive — extremely sensitive – that we have. There are the collections systems, other things."
One thing about Trump, he continued, is that he doesn't care about the implications and the consequences of his actions.
"I don't think he fully understands. He was never really a student of the intelligence profession itself," Brennan continued.
"So, therefore, who knows what he might have done. And I do hope, in addition to holding him accountable for the unlawful retention of these documents, that we really do get to the bottom of what he planned to do, what he might have already done, and who might have had access to these documents that could have seriously compromised national security."
See the full discussion below or at the link here.