Alarms raised over missing classified Russian intel file last seen with Trump: report

According to a report from CNN, U.S. intelligence officials are searching for a missing file containing highly sensitive information about Russia as well as information about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

As the report notes, the fact that the file, also containing intel compiled by NATO allies can't be found and was last seen in the possession of former president Donald Trump. That has both senior U.S. intel officials and European allies concerned.

According to CNN, "The intelligence was so sensitive that lawmakers and congressional aides with top-secret security clearances were able to review the material only at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where their work scrutinizing it was itself kept in a locked safe."

"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," CNN is reporting. "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."

According to the report, just before Joe Biden was to be inaugurated, Meadows took a redacted copy back to the Justice Department, but since then, the unredacted files have been missing.

"US officials repeatedly declined to discuss any government efforts to locate the binder or confirm that any intelligence was missing," CNN is reporting. "The binder was not among the classified items found inlast year’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, according to a US official familiar with the matter, who said the FBI was not looking specifically for intelligence related to Russia when it obtained a search warrant for the former president’s residence last year."

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