Donald Trump's handling of United States government records, especially those containing classified information, during his tenure as the 45th U.S. president has come under scrutiny. A number of incidents in which the president disclosed classified information to foreign powers and private individuals have become publicly known, sometimes with distinct national security and diplomatic consequences.
Notably, on May 10, 2017, Trump disclosed classified information to Russian government representatives, creating political and security concerns in the United States and its allies, especially Israel. Soon after the meeting, American intelligence extracted a high-level covert source from within the Russian government because of concerns the individual was at risk, in part, by the repeated mishandling of classified intelligence by Trump and his administration.
Other questionable behaviors during his presidency have included Trump's sharing of national defense information on social media and private disclosures, both known and unknown. During Trump's tenure as president, lax security at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago was a cause of concern because of the uncontrolled flow of guests and events at the resort—a concern that endured inter-presidency, because Trump retained classified documents after leaving office.
Background Handling, storage, and disposition of U.S. government records
The Presidential Records Act establishes that presidential records belong to the United States and must be surrendered to the Archivist of the United States at the end of a president's term of office (or second term of office, if consecutive).
The law governs the retention and management of records "created or received" by the president, the vice president, their staffs, and certain other parts of the administration. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the agency responsible for the execution of provisions of the law, as well as other laws related to records management.
Classified material
Policies governing the handling of classified records throughout the executive branch have been codified in a series of executive orders, with the most recent being Barack Obama's Executive Order 13526.
Several statutes are also in play. The disclosure of information of national security interest is unlawful under the Espionage Act of 1917, even though that act makes no reference to the classification system, having predated its creation. Information related to nuclear security is governed by the Atomic Energy Act, which deems nuclear information to have been "born secret".
Unauthorized removal and retention of classified information of the United States government is a criminal offense under U.S. federal law; it has been a felony since the enactment of S. 139 (FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017), a law signed by President Donald Trump in January 2018 which increased the maximum term of imprisonment for this offense from one year to five.
Handling and destruction of records during presidency
Although under the Presidential Records Act official presidential records must be preserved and retained, Trump frequently destroyed and disposed of papers while president. Advisers regularly saw him destroy documents at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, as well as aboard Air Force One. Trump continued this practice throughout his presidency, despite repeated admonishments from at least two of his chiefs of staff and from the White House counsel. Trump's indiscriminate shredding of paper extended to "both sensitive and mundane" materials. In an attempt to deal with Trump's habits, early in his presidency, his aides developed special practices and protocols, with staffers from the Office of the Staff Secretary or the Oval Office Operations team retrieving piles of torn paper. Staff from the White House Office of Records Management pieced documents back together, using clear tape.
Not all materials have been recovered. Trump White House staffers used "burn bags" frequently to destroy documents rather than retain them for handling in accordance with the law. On at least two occasions, Trump apparently flushed documents down the toilet at the White House Residence.
Handling and declassifications of classified material
During his four years as U.S. president, Trump took a cavalier attitude toward U.S. classified information. After U.S. intelligence assessed in 2017 that the Russian government sought to manipulate the 2016 presidential election and promote Trump's candidacy, Trump ranted against what he claimed was a "deep state" and viewed the assessment as an insult. Months into his presidency, Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian officials in an Oval Office meeting, forcing the CIA to extract a key Moscow source developed over years. In a July 2018 summit in Helsinki with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Trump accepted Russia's denials that it had interfered in the 2016 election, rejecting the U.S. government's conclusions to the contrary. Trump frequently blasted the U.S. intelligence agencies on Twitter, and on two occasions, Trump revealed classified information on his Twitter feed (in 2017, he made a Twitter post revealing a CIA program in Syria, and in August 2019, he posted a classified satellite photo of a site in Iran that revealed U.S. satellite surveillance capabilities). Three years later, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency formally declassified the satellite image that Trump had tweeted, following a FOIA request, which required a Pentagon-wide review to determine if the briefing slide could be made public. His national security adviser, John Bolton, would later describe him as "a collector of things that he thought were of interest to him", including "classified documents". Bolton said Trump routinely kept documents from intelligence briefings and "it became the practice" of his advisers to retrieve as many as they could.
Trump's erratic behavior led to mistrust from the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies, who were also alarmed by Trump's mixing with guests during his frequent trips to Mar-a-Lago, viewing the practice as "ripe to be exploited by a foreign spy service eager for access to the epicenter of American power". Mar-a-Lago is frequented by its hundreds of members, as well as guests who visit or rent the facilities. In 2017, after North Korea conducted a ballistic-missile test, at least one Mar-a-Lago patron posted photos on social media of Trump talking on his cell phone and conferring with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the resort's dining room. In 2019, authorities arrested a Chinese national carrying phones and other electronic devices who had left a reception area at the club; the incident heightened security concerns regarding the club. During Trump's presidency, a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) was operational at Mar-a-Lago for communications with the White House Situation Room and Pentagon. The SCIF was removed after he left office.
Stephanie Grisham, who was White House press secretary from July 2019 to April 2020 and was the First Lady's press secretary before and after that, later said: "I watched him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago on the dining room patio. So, he has no respect for classified information, never did."
In October 2020, Trump said on Twitter that he had "fully authorized the total declassification" of all documents related to what he called "the Russia hoax" and the Hillary Clinton email controversy. However, news organizations were told that these documents were still classified, and Trump's then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, in a sworn federal court filing, said that Trump had told him that Trump's "statements on Twitter were not self-executing declassification orders and do not require the declassification or release of any particular documents".
In January 2021, Meadows sought to declassify unreleased Crossfire Hurricane materials which included text messages between former FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Meadows dismissed concerns from the FBI of compromising the bureau, stating that Trump intended to declassify and release them. Trump declassified them after the White House settled with the FBI on redactions. However, Department of Justice (DOJ) officials warned Meadows that his plan to give the materials to conservative journalists could violate privacy law.
When Trump left office, President Joe Biden barred him from receiving the intelligence briefings traditionally given to former presidents, citing Trump's "erratic behavior".
2017 Oval Office incident with Russia
President Donald Trump discussed classified information during an Oval Office meeting on May 10, 2017, with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The information was provided by a U.S. ally and concerned a planned Islamic State (ISIL) operation, providing sufficient detail that the Russians could use to deduce the identity of the ally and the manner in which it was collected, according to current and former government officials. The meeting had been closed to the U.S. press, although a photographer from the Russian press contingent was present. The disclosure was first reported in The Washington Post on May 15, 2017. White House staff initially denied the report, but the following day, Trump defended the disclosure, stating that he has the "absolute right" to "share" intelligence with Russia.
Origin of intelligence The May 15 The Washington Post article reported that the intelligence came from an unnamed Middle Eastern ally. On May 16, The New York Times named the relevant ally and source of the intelligence as Israel, saying that as a consequence, Trump's boasts to the Russian envoys could damage America's relationship with Israel and endanger Israel's security if Russia passes the intelligence on to Iran, Israel's main threat in the Middle East. The intelligence was so sensitive that it hadn't even been shared among key U.S. allies.
It was later reported that Israel was the source of the information. Israel did not confirm or deny the report but released a statement stating full confidence in the intelligence sharing relationships with the United States. Ynetnews, an Israeli news website, had previously reported on January 12 that in a meeting held in early January (during Trump's presidential transition), U.S. intelligence officials advised Israeli Mossad and other intelligence officials to "be careful" when transferring intelligence information to the Trump White House and administration until the possibility of Russian influence over Trump, suggested by Christopher Steele's report (commonly referred as the Steele dossier), has been fully investigated. U.S. officials were concerned that the information, particularly about sensitive intelligence sources, could be passed to Russia and then to Iran. Two Israeli intelligence officials confirmed privately that Trump's disclosure of the intelligence to Russia was "for us, our worst fears confirmed." They said the disclosure jeopardizes Israel's "arrangement with America which is unique to the world of intelligence sharing" and that Israeli officials were "boiling mad and demanding answers".
The report was described as "shocking" and "horrifying" by some commentators and former U.S. intelligence officials. According to current and former U.S. officials interviewed by ABC News, Trump's disclosure endangered the life of a spy placed by Israel in ISIL-held territory in Syria. The classified information Trump shared came from a source described as the most valuable of any current sources on any current external plotting, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Reporting