Some of the “top secret” documents seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate had such a specific security classification that FBI agents and federal prosecutors had to obtain special clearance just to view them, the latest document from the FBI says. Justice Department.
A photo of some of the materials recovered from Trump’s “45th office” at the Florida property showed whitewashed documents with colored covers indicating their classified status, including “top secret” and “secret.”
Some of the documents in the image, which was included in the department’s filing Tuesday night, also had the less familiar designation “TS/SCI,” an abbreviation for compartmentalized sensitive information.
“Classification levels ranged from CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET information, and certain documents included additional sensitive compartments that meant very limited distribution,” the Justice Department said in its filing.
“In some cases, even FBI counterintelligence personnel and DOJ attorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were allowed to review certain documents.”
Here is a breakdown of what the security ratings are:
Top secret
This is the highest level of classification and refers to information that could cause “exceptionally serious harm to national security” if disclosed.
Information that could be classified as top secret includes nuclear codes or details provided by a sensitive human source, also known as a spy.
The president and agency heads are among the few who can officially classify the material as top secret.
Secret
This classification refers to information that could cause “serious” harm to national security if made public.
Confidential
This is the lowest category of classified information currently in use. Unauthorized publication of such material could be expected to cause some harm to national security.
Compartmented sensitive information
Some of the documents seized in the raid were marked TS/SCI, which stands for Top Secret Confidential Compartmented Information.
This is not considered a separate classification level, but may refer to a single program or the way the information was collected, for example communications intercepted by intelligence sources.
Not all persons with top secret clearance may have access to TS/SCI documents.
In all, more than 100 documents with classification marks were discovered in the boxes filled with materials the FBI seized during the Aug. 8 raid, more than double the amount recovered during a search of the property in June, prosecutors said. federals.
