At the end of Donald Trump's presidency, a folder containing highly classified information related to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election went missing.
The CNN investigation has raised alarm among intelligence officials that the most closely guarded national security secrets of the United States and its allies could be exposed, people familiar with the matter told the publication.
The previously unreported disappearance became so alarming that intelligence officials briefed Senate Intelligence Committee leaders last year about the missing material and the government's efforts to recover it, CNN sources said.
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In the more than two years since Trump left office, the missing intelligence has never been found.
The folder contained raw intelligence collected by the US and its NATO allies about Russians and Russian agents, including sources and methods that formed the basis of the US government's assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Trump win the 2016 election, sources told CNN.
— This intelligence was so secret that lawmakers and congressional aides with top secret clearances could only view the material at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where their work on it was kept in a locked safe, — says the material.
The folder was last seen at the White House during Trump's final days in office. The former president ordered the data brought there to declassify scores of documents related to the FBI's Russia investigation. Under the watchful eye of then White House Chief of Staff Mark MeadowsThe folder was reviewed by Republican aides, working to redact the most sensitive information so it could be declassified and made public.
According to CNN, the Russia intelligence was only a small part of a collection of documents in a folder that was described as 10 inches thick and containing a wealth of information about the FBI investigation called < strong>Crossfire Hurricane in relation to the Trump-Russia campaign in 2016.
As the newspaper writes, the day before leaving the presidency, Trump issued an order declassifying most of the contents of the folder, causing a flurry of activity in the last 48 hours of his presidency. The White House created several copies of the folder with redacted documents, which were planned to “distribute throughout Washington to Republicans in Congress and right-wing journalists”.
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Instead, the copies originally sent out were hastily removed at the direction of White House lawyers, who demanded additional edits.
Minutes before Joe Biden's inauguration, Meadows rushed to the Justice Department to hand over a redacted copy for a final review. Years later, the Justice Department has yet to release all the documents, despite Trump's declassification order.
CNN notes that an undecrypted version of a folder containing classified raw intelligence went missing during the “chaotic final hours of the Trump administration” at the White House.
The publication writes that soon one version appeared about the location of the folder. Cassidy Hutchinson, one of Meadows' aides, testified before the US Congress and wrote in her memoirs that she believed Meadows took home an unedited version of the folder. She said the folder was in Meadows' safe and that she saw him leave the White House with her.
— I'm pretty sure she (folder, — Ed.) went home with Meadows, — Hutchinson said in closed testimony before a congressional committee on Jan. 6.
However, Meadows' lawyer categorically denies that Meadows mishandled any classified information at the White House and says any suggestion that Meadows was responsible for missing classified information is “ ;absolutely false”.
— Mr. Meadows was fully aware of and complied with the proper handling of classified materials, all such materials handled or in his possession were handled accordingly, and any suggestion that he was responsible for the loss of a folder or other classified material information is absolutely incorrect, — said Meadows' lawyer George Terwilliger in his comments to CNN.
In the years since Trump left the presidency, his allies have sought to obtain the redacted archive in order to make it public, filing a lawsuit earlier this year against the Justice Department and the National Archives. And Trump's lawyers are now seeking access to classified intelligence from the 2016 election assessment as they prepare to defend him against charges of trying to rig the 2020 election.
