The mystery of the missing folder: how a folder of raw russian intelligence data disappeared from the White House safe on the last day of Trump's presidency
In the last days of Trump's presidency, a top-secret file containing confidential information about russian election meddling
disappeared. Despite Trump's order to declassify it, the whereabouts of the dossier remain unknown and it was not found during a
search of Mar-a-Lago.
At the end of former US President Donald Trump's presidency
a folder containing highly classified information about russian interference in the
Russia's interference in the election. Who was involved in the disappearance of this folder and where it might be now
were found out by CNN journalists, UNN reports. Details
Details
A folder with highly classified information,
related to Russian interference in the election disappeared at the end of Donald Trump's presidency.
Donald Trump's presidency. According to CNN sources, this story caused such a level of concern that intelligence officials last
last year informed the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee about the missing materials.
Any further declassification would reveal
confidential methods of intelligence gathering, damage relations with foreign
partners, jeopardize the actions of the U.S. intelligence community
operations of the United States intelligence community, and potentially violate court orders restricting the dissemination of
FISA information... (i) jeopardize confidential human sources.
According to CNN sources, the folder contained
raw intelligence gathered by the United States and its NATO allies on
Russians and Russian agents, including sources and methods that were based on
on the U.S. government's assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to
to help Trump win the 2016 election.
However, Russian intelligence was only a
a small part of the collection of documents in this 10-inch-thick folder. It contained
a wealth of information about the FBI's Hurricane of Crossfire investigation into the
Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia. But the raw intelligence on Russia was some of the
most sensitive classified materials, and senior Trump administration officials
Trump administration officials repeatedly tried to block the former president from releasing the
the documents.
More than two years after Trump left office, the missing intelligence
left office, the missing intelligence has not been found.
How the secret folder disappeared
The last time the folder was seen in the White House was during
during Trump's last days as President. The day before he left office, Trump ordered the
Trump issued an order to declassify most of the contents of the folder, which
triggering a flurry of activity in the last 48 hours of his presidency. Several copies of the
of the redacted folder were created at the White House with plans to distribute them around Washington to
Washington, D.C., to Republicans in Congress and right-wing journalists.
On January 19, 2021, Trump issued an
an order to declassify "a binder of materials related to the
the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation of Hurricane Crossfire."
The White House planned to distribute the declassified
documents throughout Washington, including to conservative journalist John
Solomon, who is a Trump ally. But Trump's order did not lead to its
to be made public. Copies were first sent out and then feverishly removed at the behest of
White House lawyers, who demanded additional revisions before the document was released.
Judging by the CNN investigation, the last time the folder was picked up was by the then White House Chief of Staff Mark
Meadows.
A few minutes before the inauguration of Joe
Biden's inauguration, Meadows rushed to the Department of Justice to hand over a redacted copy
for a final review. Many years later, the Justice Department has not yet
released all of the documents, despite Trump's order to declassify them.
to declassify them. Additional copies with varying levels of redaction have been deposited in the
National Archives.
However, the unredacted version of the binder, which
containing classified raw intelligence data disappeared during the last chaotic hours of the Trump White House.
chaotic hours of the Trump White House. The circumstances of its disappearance remain shrouded in mystery.
mystery.
The folder was not among the classified items
found during a search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort last year, according to a
a U.S. official familiar with the matter, who said the FBI was not
specifically looking for Russia-related intelligence when it obtained the search warrant.
warrant for the former president's residence last year.
In a June indictment against Trump
regarding the mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago also does not contain
any reference to the binder or the missing Russian intelligence.
Who has the classified file now
Among the alleged misappropriators of the folder with
Meadows' assistant, Cassidy Hutchinson, is among the alleged appropriators of the secret documents. However, in
testimony to Congress and in her memoirs, she claims that the secret folder was
Meadows himself. She said he could have taken home an unredacted version of the binder.
She also said that he kept it in a safe,
and that she saw him leave the White House with the binder with her own eyes.
House.
Meadows' lawyer, strongly denies this accusation.
He insists that Meadows clearly knew and followed the requirements for the proper
of the proper handling of classified material.
Any such material that he worked with or had in his possession
handled or in his possession were handled accordingly, and
any suggestion that he is responsible for any missing
folder or other classified information is completely incorrect. ," Meadows' lawyer, George Terwilliger, said in a statement to CNN.
Why the declassified data from the folder was never published.
The CIA, FBI, National Archives, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence
of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on this story. A spokeswoman for the
of the Senate Intelligence Committee declined to comment. Hutchinson's lawyer also
also declined to comment. Trump's spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The missing folder is at the heart of one of the most controversial battles fought behind
behind the scenes by then-President Trump. Despite fierce opposition from his own national security officials, Trump
his own national security officials, Trump spent years trying to declassify
to declassify material that he claimed would prove his claims that the FBI's
the FBI's Russia and campaign investigations were a hoax.
Last July, Meadows said in an interview with
interview with Solomon that he turned over the documents to the Justice Department out of "an abundance of
out of "an abundance of caution.
We gave them these declassified
documents - I want to emphasize that they were declassified documents - for
final redaction of some of this personal information with instructions that
they go ahead and distribute it. We fully expected them to do that,
that they would do that in a few days at most, but here we are several
years later.
For years after Trump left office, his
Trump left office, his allies sought the redacted binder so they
could release it, suing the Department of Justice and the National
Archives earlier this year. And Trump's lawyers are now seeking access
to classified intelligence from the 2016 election assessment as they prepare for
his defense against charges of trying to undo the 2020 election.