There are so many talking points about this likely rerun of 2020 already that are driving me crazy. We'll leave the economic illiteracy of both Biden and Trump for another post. But let's focus for this essay on the classified documents kerfuffle. To some extent I've discussed this topic in past posts and tweets and won't go into Trump's alleged misdeeds in detail here. But I loathe Trump's playing the victim card , arguing that Biden has weaponized the Justice Department to persecute him and complaining that he and Biden are being held to different standards in violations of classified data rules. As for Biden's side, his talking points argue he was exonerated of ant wrongdoiing and Biden is furious about the language used to explain why the federal prosecutors aren't pursuing charges. Essentially they are arguing that it might be tough getting a conviction on elderly, amiable Uncle Joe with a faulty memory. I think the Democrats are worried that the prosecutor's words could wind up in a future Trump ad.
I have explained my own experience in past essays. The first thing that comes to mind when I read that the prosecutors highlighted Biden's handwritten notes, a form of derivative classified document (although I doubt Biden followed the rules of properly marking his notes). This takes me back to having been a Navy Nuclear Power School instructor.. I was teaching math, like basic calculus. The curriculum was designed in a way that the math concepts I covered could be applied in a subsequent different class. Instructor certificatiion required high passes {like B+) on certain training, like Reactor Principles. We didn't attend the classes but had access to class reference materials. Navy test grading was very strict; for example, if you had a 20-point question to diagram and label a reactor design, you better identify all (say 16) parts and use the official Navy term for each part. It was all-or-nothing grading, no partial credit, no paraphrasing, etc. We could write study notes based on reference materials, but our notes had to be properly marked; we couldn't take our materials or notes home with us, and we were subject to search coming in or going out the facility. I would learn later the types of water reactors we studied were well-known and published in the scientific literature, so I'm not sure why we had rigorous security procedures in place, unless the Navy was training us on security measures.
So, simply on the basis of that experience, there are lots of questions. I've heard that Biden wanted some documentx to reference for writing projects, like memoirs. (NOTE: any said work in reference to its sources would have to be cleared.) Was Biden's ghostwriter himself cleared? Did he have a need to know? Did Biden himself move the materials or direct others to do it? Why were the materials not secured after Biden used them on the job? Were his movers cleared? If they were, why didn't they secure vs. move the documents? Let's be clear: if I as a federal contractor did what Biden did, I would be prosecuted. None of his excuses are valid. He should be held accountable. Don't get me started on his insecure storage of classified documents in his garage.
I cannot tell you about security training for officeholders or staffers go through, but the federal goverment literally has on file my work history (including private industry end clients) since 1997. I have had public trust background investigations and higher (in 2014 I had a contingent job offer with a Bechtel subcontractor on a Department of Energy project in the Pittsburgh area; it required a Q clearance, a variation of top secret. The investigation went on for months without resolution, and I finally had to take another job in SC. The investigation was ridiculously absurd. They questioned me about a 2009 employer, and I, not the government investigator, had to figure out the employer had lost a USPTO data warehouse contract recompete and went out of business soon thereafter. The chief investigator also went nuts because I paid, at my own expense, for a week at a motel in WV (my MD apartment was over 200 miles away and my WV landlady needed a week to get an apartnent ready. So the investigator accused me of a material omission. Why? I hadn't moved from MD yet. She needed to interview motel operators about me. God knows why; I checked in and out. They ran my credit card through their system.)
If you are an IT federal contractor, you go through scores of trainings and tests including the annual cyber awareness training more times than I care to remember. I mention the latter because there are usually a list of questions on securing your workspace, dealing with PII or classified materials, etc.I have gone through classified data overviews, derivative classification trainings. So I'm fully aware of the contexts of Biden's and Trump's misconduct from a gemeral perspective . As a database administrator, I didn't directly work with classified data. Probably the closest I've come to a relevant issue was on a couple of occasions. In one case, a disk failed on a test database appliance. DoD routinely insists on keeping failed disks for degaussing the disks, i.e., making them unusable for recovery. Oracle, which manufactured the appliance one stop shop including hardware maintenance, required routinely the failed hardware to be returned but provided by default a policy waiving return of the disks for some nominal charge (say for argument's sake $150 a year). Some idiot civil servant beancounter canceled said coverage after the first year. (The failure was maybe 4 years later.) I ran into a consolidation patch issue that it turned out to be because of a bad disk, not touching the datase or its software. (That's not relevant from a DoD perspective: one rule fits all.) I needed to keep security patchng current or they would take my appliance off the network. Oracle would not send a field engineer to replace the disk but shipped me the cartridge DIY. Just accessing the appliance was a security hassle (I had to be escorted.). I was really nervous about replacing the right cartridge off a bank of 20-odd cartridges. So after my verifying the replacement and the patch ran successfully, Oracle demanded its bad cartridge back.
My civilian manager vetoed returning the cartridge. I contacted the appliance owner point of contact. He contacted the Oracle group that did the appliance sale years back. They insisted they sold the machine with the waiver policy in effect in 2014. Oracle researched the issue and discovered DoD let the coverage lapse in 2015. Even to restore the policy DoD would have to backfill the intervening years of premiums. My POC wanted me to find out how much Oracle would charge for us to keep the disk. Oracle avoided the question, saying thet would wait until the 6-week return period was exhausted. I'm taking hits from all sides, facing threats from the hardware security group demanding that I surrender the disk for degaussing. Dude, DoD doesn't own it. By contract, Oracle owns it. When Oracle finally got back to me, it was some nominal charge, like maybe $150-250. I went to my client POC, and he said "I don't have the budget now." Several days later, he contacted me to say he got the budget to pay the invoice. What he didn't tell me was he sicced the stupidest government auditor from hell on me: who the hell do you thuink you are, lowly government contractor, operating outside the government-ordained competitive bidding process (as if I ordered the Oracle disk on my own like buying a new drive for a commodity NT server). I tried to explain her apples and oranges conceptual error this was a contractual penalty. not a procurement invoice. We weren't paying for the new disk cartridge (Oracle replaced it as covered by the paid hardware service agreement), we were paying a charge because DoD wanted to destroy the old cartridge which Oracle owned since DoD waived the policy allowing us to keep the old disk. The lady auditor hung up on me, adding lack of professionalism to her gross incompetence. I left that contract engagement later for unrelated reasons. So I don't know if or how this was eventually resolved. But keep in mind this was an unclassified server, and this is the kind of anal-retentive stuff we go through to maintain security.
The second example is perhaps more direct and it illustrates from the client's perspective I didn't have a "need to know" even though I was primary administrator for the relevant unclassified production database. Somehow, and to the present I don't know the specifics, there was spillage of classified data into our database. I was asked in effect about a civilian manager's false rumor that Oracle had something like a degaussing algorithm for overwriting diskspace occupied by leaked classified material. My civilian supervisor insisted that I open up an iTAR withe Oracle Support to get Oracle's response in writing. The clients never briefed me and eventually let me reopen the database for users. I assume they deleted or overwrote the stored leak information. They might have asked me to delete backups around the leakage date, maybe the relevant archive logs.
Going back to the Biden and Trump scenarios: it's clear that Obama and Trump Administrations did not maintain the same discipline most government employees or civilians are expected to follow. I've mentioned in past posts a classified document had been found in a WH women's restroom and others had been found in Trump's WH living quarters. Those are gross violations. Now it could be processes were relaxed because of enhanced security and monitoring or due to POTUS' direction/preference
I think there was a clearinghouse office for Presidential records at the White House. Note that Presidential records and classified documents are conceptually different. For the latter exposure could risk damage to tje country's security. Trump has repeatedly and falsely alleged he owned all the documents; generally only personal documents like diaries are exempt from turnover to NARA as required by law. According to the AP's timeline, some boxes were turned over to NARA, as required by law. Members of Trump's transition team were responsible for movingTrump's personal office/transition related itens, not personal belomgings shipped separately. Trump's team was required to certify the boxes were his (vs. government 's) property; GSA did not inspect the boxes for government property, like Presidential documents. I have not seen anything on whether Trump's transition were cleared; personally I doubt it because cleared personal who didn't stow marked documents in secured containers were at risk of losing their clearance. Using uncleared people without need to jnow would be a flagrant violation of classified data policies. Never mind Trump's insane excuse for not complying saying he had golf shirts in boxes mixed with classified documents. How the hell did his personal items get in the same box? I have opened SCIF vaults and opened secured containers and never come across a golf shirt.
I don't know the specifics of what NARA thought was missing after cataloging the boxes Trump surrendered on leaving office (maybe it was clear thst Trump and Kim Jong Un's "love letters" weren't provided to NARA) `but less than 4 months later they had contacted over missing documents. This request was repeated and ignored several times (I read an account that NARA had finally theatened to escalate to Congress or DoJ) until in December a Trump representative said they had about a dozen boxes of government stuff to be picked up. (It would turn out the boxes included a bunch of irrelevant Trump junk, including newspapers, magazines, photos and personal letters.)
I don't think NARA expected to find 184 classified documents in that pickup. Classified documents are always government property, of course, but not Presidential records.. NARA reported the discovery. The FBI opened a criminal inestigation in Feb. 2022. They got access to the NARA documents in question and the Justice Departnent issued a subpoena for addtional documents in May, In June Trump's lawyers handed over another 35 classified documents and a certified statement that collection was all the classified material left. The lawyers indicated the prior dump of 15 boxes had come from a MAL storage room which they showed USG officials but refused to let them go through remaining boxes. (I think the USG had misgivings about security of the storage room, including locks and/or surveillance of access).
I don't know of the specifics underlying the subsequent search warrant; I've seen stories to the effect that there was observed subsequent box movements in and out of storage; perhaps the refusal to allow search of storage room boxes served as a red flag, and there may have witnesses to post-June sightings of classified documents at MAL. We know the search yielded even more documents, even one purportedly in Trump's personal desk. I'm not going to repeat what is covered under the Trump's relevant indictment here, but the allegation that Trump showed one to unvetted people to prove his point about getting neo-con advice over military intervention is an appalling act.. Not that I support neo-con policies, but using classified documents for personal reasons like winning an argument is corrupt and criminal. The leakage of contingency plans could exacerbate international tensions.
I know after the NARA discovery of classified documents led to follow-up queries to other high-profile officials like Pence. With regards to Biden, we know Biden's lawyers found at least 3 sources post Trump search warrant:
Between November 2022 and January 2023, approximately 25 to 30 classified government documents were discovered by President Joe Biden's attorneys in his former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., and in his personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware, dating to his time in the Senate and his vice presidency in the Obama administration. By June 2023, classified documents from Biden's Senate tenure were discovered in materials donated to the University of Delaware.
Clearly Trump's violations are more flagrant in size, scope and nature. Trump fought returning Presidential records and classified documents tooth and nail for over 18 months after leaving office, arguing falsely they were "his". Arguing this was the result of a weaponized Justice Department against him is self-serving crap. We don't necessarily know Trump directed his transition team around returning Presidential papers to NARA but certainly if classified documents had been properly stowed in secure containers as per policy, they wouldn't swept up in the move. Trump fought returning anything for nearly a year. As soon as classified documents were recovered in Jan. 2022, he should have given federal agents full access to his relocation boxes. Arguing he is above the law is no excuse. Making excuses, playing the victim card is unacceptable.
Just because Joe Biden has been more compliant with the Justice Department is no credible excuse. He has been a senator, VP or POTUS for over 50 years. If anyone should know better, he should.
If an employee or contractor did what Trump or Biden did, they would almost certainly be prosecuted for similar crimes. I want accountability; I don't lust to see either elderly man to die in prison. I'm open to a sentence of probation.
Nore importantly, we seem to have inconsistent policies on classified data at the highest levels of the government. It's time the Executive Branch gets its own house in order so these kinds of lapses don't happen again.
