I know Crenshaw, a Texas Republican Congressman, mostly for hie trademark right eye patch. I decided to Google what happened to Crenshaw's eye. In 2012 the then Navy officer, a Navy SEAL, was hit by an IED on patrol in Afghanistan which demolished his right eye and also left his left eye badly damaged. Multiple operations allowed him to regain eyesight in his remaining eye.
I think what set me off was his sarcastic comment in a CNN interview: "Do any of us really believe Donald Trump is reading nuclear secrets at his bedside at night?" Elsewhere he seemed to get the point;"It’s not a question that it’s bad to have classified material in a non-SCIF [Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility] environment. That’s a non-secret compartmentalized infrastructure there [Mar-a-Lago]. That’s wrong."
I don't know how familiar Crenshaw is with clearance (POTUS, VP, Congressmen, and other government officials aren't required to gain clearances); I wouldn't be surprised if a former SEAL has held a clearance given the nature of many SEAL missions, although I didn't find a relevant Internet search item. I do think Congressmen have had briefings in secure facilities.
But Crenshaw should know better:
- Trump did not turn over his Presidential documents at the end of his term to NARA
- Trump had over 300 classified documents in his possession; as former POTUS, he had no "need to know"; they weren't stored in secured containers; they could have been copied in some form, or viewed by unvetted others. We are talking about information which poses potentially serious or gravely serious damage to national security in the wrong hands.
- the classified material was gathered in 3 separate steps: the 15 boxes in January, a second collection of a few dozen documents in June relevant to a subpoena, and the 26 boxes during the recent FBI search. NARA quickly noted that some prominent gifts and records (e.g., Obama's letter to Trump, his correspondence with Kim Jung-Un, etc.) weren't turned over. We know before the move there were documents forwarded to the White House Office of Records Management We know talks between NARA and Trump basically went nowhere until finally NARA threatened to lodge a complaint to Congress or the Justice Department. The nature and extent of classified documents in the 15 boxes of catalogued materials set a red flag with NARA which contacted the Justice Department. News reports aren't specific but it looks like there were one or more sources at Mar-a-Lago who were aware of remaining classified documents, thought to be in the boxes of a storage room I think in a Trump basement. I've seen reports the USG wanted the room padlocked and under surveillance. We know there was a Trump lawyer sign-off in June that DOJ now had all the classified documents, which we know was untrue in that the FBI picked up an additional 11 sets in their search.
There are other relevant nuggets of information. One is the fact Trump is undisciplined; he was known for taking reams of documents to his private quarters, and document handlers often had to retrieve them. it wouldn't surprise me if he mixed-or-matched different types of documents, including classified. I mentioned in an earlier essay how one witness found a classified document in the ladies' room. So when Crenshaw ridiculed the idea of Trump reading nuclear secrets at night, he probably didn't know about Trump's habit of bringing documents to his quarters. Did they include classified documents?We don't really know. I would think there were/are secure containers in the White House; that doesn't mean that Trump was enforcing security rules. We know Trump was specifically cautioned on multiple occasions by his chief of staff and lawyers about the Presidential Records Act. There are known incidents of Trump ripping up documents, flushing them down toilets, being shredded or discarded in burn bags, etc. He saw himself as enforcer of such laws and chose to abuse his discretion. I recall an unrelated incident where the staffer worried that she might be violating the Hatch Act. Trump advised her not to worry about it, because it was his call on enforcing the Act.
So is Crenshaw right, scoffing st the idea of Trump studying nuclear secrets in bed? Now, of course, as ex-POTUS, he has no "need to know"; could he leak it for nefarious reasons, like selling state secrets? I consider it unlikely; I'm more concerned over lax controls and unvetted personnel at Mar-a-Lago. As to when he brought up documents to his quarters while POTUS, I suspect he probably spent most of his off-time tweeting and was enough of a narcissist to see how he was being portrayed on cable news like FNC. I've never been particularly impressed by Trump's work ethic, his in-depth command of policy issues, etc. A lot of this is based on his lack of preparation for the 2016 GOP debates, his getting stumped by a "gotcha" question on the nuclear triad, etc. He's impulsive and often judges things from a superficial perspective. Just one telling example to make the point: Trump had been repeatedly rebuked for ripping up documents into 4 pieces. So when Trump saw Pelosi infamously rip up her copy of his SOTU speech, he absurdly claimed she violated the Presidential Records Act. (He routinely tries to deflect by accusing his opponents of the same infraction, e.g., on Obama and Clinton. Clinton, like Trump, had to surrender certain foreign gifts to NARA.
It seems there may be another motive in play:Trump seems to see himself as custodian of records for his prospective Presidential library. (He is wrong, of course; by law, those gifts and documents are in the custody of NARA.) A recent Rolling Stone post pointed out:
The ex-president has been demanding that his team find a way to recover “all” of the official documents that Trump has long referred to as “mine” — including the highly sensitive and top secret ones.
Furthermore, he posted on his Truth Social service:
This Mar-a-Lago Break-in Search, And Seizure was illegal and unconstitutional, and we are taking all actions necessary to get the documents back, which we would have given to them without the necessity of the despicable raid of my home, so that I can give them to the National Archives until they are required for the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library and Museum.
