President Donald J. Trump speaking at his campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa at Drake University's Knapp Center. (Aspects and Angles / Shutterstock.com)
Sarah Burris is a long-time veteran of political campaigns, having worked as a fundraiser and media director across the United States. She transitioned into reporting while working for Rock the Vote, Future Majority and Wiretap Magazine, covering the Millennial Generation's perspective during the presidential elections. As a political writer, Burris has had bylines at CNN, Salon.com, BNR, and AlterNet and serves as a senior digital editor for RawStory.com.
During his Arizona rally, former President Donald Trump falsely accused Democrats of putting a "trigger warning" on the Constitution. He then went off on a rant against Democrats claiming they are the ones who destroy documents and "they plant documents," he continued.
"They plant documents. Let's see, is there a book on nuclear destruction or the building of nuclear weapon cheaply?" he said, sweating in the Arizona heat. "Let's put that box — let's put that in with Trump. Nah, they plant documents. They have a terrible reputation. Look at the kinda things — this is just the small part that I've read. And who would want to be with them? We're safer in that Chinese restaurant."
Immediately after stolen government documents were seized at Mar-a-Lago, Trump began claiming that documents were planted. When reports surfaced that there was nuclear information in there, Trump flew off the handle on his personal social media website. He categorically denied that he had such a document.
Trump then found a supportive judge in Florida that he went to, asking for the documents to be returned or to block the DOJ from an investigation. In their response to Trump's filing, the Justice Department showed a photo of the folders of the documents showing that they read "TOP SECRET" or "CLASSIFIED" as well as a slew of abbreviations under which their classification fell. One of those abbreviations was about nuclear programs under the Pentagon.
Former assistant director of counterintelligence at the FBI, Frank Figliuzzi, explained that among the folders were references to "special access programs" that were formerly under the Atomic Energy Act but moved to the Pentagon for defense.
"I'm not trying to be overly dramatic," Figliuzzi explained. "Even a discussion of the nature of special access programs becomes problematic. That's how sensitive they are. It's project-oriented. It could be long-term research that the government's doing on some incredibly sensitive technology. It could be the next iteration of a nuclear program or submarine. It could be a new weapons plan that's being worked on. It could be a new effort to insert people into a certain terrorist organization. We just don't know. But we know it's time sensitive. It's the most limited access you can get, and you get briefed in and out."
During the rally, Trump also falsely said that the documents "are mine." In fact, every document created for government business by a government employee belongs to the government. Trump even went on to falsely characterize the documents as being "mine" under the Presidential Records Act. The exact opposite is the case, as the Presidential Records Act is why they do not belong to Trump.