Historian: Way Trump Stored Classified Documents Never Seen Before
source link: https://www.businessinsider.com/historian-way-trump-stored-classified-documents-never-seen-before-2022-8
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Presidential historian says he's never seen a former president 'take ultra-classified documents, stick them in his basement'
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a "Save America" rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on July 9, 2022. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
- A presidential historian said how Trump stored classified documents is unprecedented.
- His comments come after the FBI raised Mar-a-Lago last, finding documents labeled as top secret.
- Trump denied the FBI's findings and said the documents seized were declassified.
A presidential historian said that the way former President Donald Trump stored classified documents at his residence is highly unusual.
"We have never in history seen a former president take ultra-classified documents, stick them in his basement, loosely watched by government standards, and with the shadow of we still don't know what his motive was," Michael Beschloss said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Last week, FBI agents executed a search warrant and raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. They seized 11 sets of classified records, including some that were labeled as top secret.
—Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) August 14, 2022
In a statement released on Friday, Trump responded to reports about the raid emphasizing that the documents were "declassified." He added that the FBI did not need to "seize" the records and "could have had it anytime they wanted."
In addition, Trump also made a baseless claim about President Barack Obama also moving classified documents from the White House when he left office.
"President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified," Trump said in the statement. "How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!"
The National Archives also debunked Trump's accusations, adding in a statement, that he "has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration."
Beschloss, on Sunday, emphasized that Obama's documents are heavily secured.
"Well, President Trump is absolutely right. Barack Obama has tens of millions of documents, and they are in a National Archives installation, Hoffman Estates, Illinois, under armed guard with heavy surveillance, using the procedures that are supposed to be used for a former president," Beschloss told NBC News.
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