It just doesn’t stop…..
A binder containing highly classified information related to Russian election interference went missing at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, raising alarms among intelligence officials that some of the most closely guarded national security secrets from the US and its allies could be exposed, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Its disappearance, which has not been previously reported, was so concerning that intelligence officials briefed Senate Intelligence Committee leaders last year about the missing materials and the government’s efforts to retrieve them, the sources said.
In the two-plus years since Trump left office, the missing intelligence does not appear to have been found.
The binder contained raw intelligence the US and its NATO allies collected on Russians and Russian agents, including sources and methods that informed the US government’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Trump win the 2016 election, sources tell CNN.
The intelligence was so sensitive that lawmakers and congressional aides with top secret security clearances were able to review the material only at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where their work scrutinizing it was itself kept in a locked safe….
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The missing binder is at the heart of one of the most contentious fights waged behind the scenes by then-President Trump. Despite fierce opposition from his own national security officials, Trump spent years trying to declassify material that he said would prove his claims the FBI’s Russia probe into his campaign was a hoax….
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Even after Trump left office, the hunt for the binder continued on multiple fronts.
Roughly a year after Trump left office, Senate Intelligence Committee leaders were briefed by intelligence officials about the disappearance of the raw Russian intelligence contained in the unredacted version of the binder and the government’s efforts to retrieve it, sources told CNN.
At the same time, Trump’s allies sought to regain access to the declassified version of the binder that Meadows had taken to the Justice Department….