All the times Donald Trump has leaked classified information, including nuclear secrets
FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search is not the ex-president’s first alleged run-in with respect to confidential information
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Your support makes all the difference.The FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in connection with “classified nuclear documents” is not the former president’s first alleged run-in over confidential information.
On Monday, FBI agents conducted a multi-hour search at Mr Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida private residence.
Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items the FBI was looking for during their search of Mr Trump’s mansion, people familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post.
Here are some other such instances which had the involvement of Mr Trump in the past:
Classified information about Isis revealed to Russia
In May 2017, The Washington Post reported Mr Trump had reportedly revealed highly classified information about Isis provided to the US by an American ally, to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting.
After the meeting, White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and National Security Agency.
Nuclear submarines off North Korea
In the same month, it was revealed that Mr Trump reportedly told former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte that the US has “two nuclear submarines” off the coast of North Korea.
“We have two submarines — the best in the world. We have two nuclear submarines, not that we want to use them at all,” Mr Trump was quoted as saying in part of a leaked telephone transcript between the pair that circulated online under a “confidential” cover sheet.
Leaked intelligence on 2017 Manchester attack
In May 2017, UK home secretary Amber Rudd criticised the Trump administration after confidential details about the Manchester Arena attack appeared to have been leaked to the media by American intelligence officers.
“So it is irritating when it gets released from other sources and I have been very clear with our friends that that should not happen again,” Ms Rudd had said.
Took away interpreter’s notes at Hamburg meeting with Putin
In 2017, at a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Mr Trump reportedly took away the notes of his own interpreter and instructed the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials.
In 2019, US officials said there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Mr Trump’s face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations in the preceeding two years.
Accused of tweeting image from secret intelligence briefing
In August 2019, Mr Trump tweeted a high-resolution image of the site of a failed Iranian satellite launch that was taken by a US surveillance satellite, claiming the US had nothing to do with the incident.
The image was posted shortly after Mr Trump was scheduled to receive an intelligence briefing that experts say was likely taken from briefing documents.
The tweet came a day after Iran denied that an explosion had occurred at the site.
Secret approvals to Saudi Arabia
In 2019, a leaked document revealed the Trump administration had approved a series of secret agreements allowing US companies to explore selling nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia.
The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said in the document that the companies had requested the Trump administration keep the approvals secret.
National Archives
In February 2022, as the Jan 6 committee investigating last year’s insurrection poured through records from the Trump administration, it emerged that the National Archives had recovered multiple boxes of official paperwork Mr Trump had transported to his residence at Mar-a-Lago – including “love letters” between the former president and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
An insider had reportedly told the FBI that Mr Trump still possessed government documents, something that had set off the execution of a search warrant and the subsequent Monday FBI search at the Florida clubhouse.
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