A binder containing Highly classified information regarding Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election disappeared from the West Wing at the end of Donald Trumpof the presidency — and was never found, according to a CNN report.
The binder, described as being 10 inches thick and containing a wealth of information on the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane.” Russia investigationwas moved from CIA headquarters to the White House days before Trump left office so the former president could declassify its contents.
According to a January 2021 White House Memo Posted the day before President Biden’s inauguration, Trump wrote that he personally requested and received “a binder of documents related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into Hurricane Crossfire.” Portions of the documents contained in the binder remained classified and were not released to Congress or the public.
“I have determined that the documents contained in this binder should be declassified to the extent possible,” Trump wrote.
Sources told CNN the declassification order caused chaos within the White House. The binder allegedly contained raw and highly sensitive intelligence on Russia, collected by the United States and its NATO allies. As White House lawyers worked to appropriately redact its contents — and recover improperly redacted copies — the original, unexpurgated binder disappeared.
Despite Trump’s order, the Justice Department has yet to make the documents publicly available. The binder has not been identified among the hundreds of classified documents found in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home during a 2022 FBI search.
According to published transcriptions by the committee on January 6 of last year, in closed-door testimony, a former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told committee she was “pretty sure” the binder went home with the former White House chief of staff Marc Prés.
“I don’t think it would have been something he would have destroyed. It was not returned anywhere and never left our office to go anywhere internally. It stayed in our safe at the office most of the time,” Hutchinson said, adding that she realized the binder was no longer in the safe on her last day at the White House.
Hutchinson also told the committee that Meadows fiercely guarded the original, unexpurgated copy of the binder. “He wanted to keep that one close to him,” she said. “He didn’t want it to be widely known. I just know Mr. Meadows. He wouldn’t have had that one copied if he hadn’t done it himself.
Meadows’ lawyers have strongly denied the allegations. “Mr Meadows was fully aware of and complied with the requirements for the proper handling of classified documents, any such material he handled or was in his possession was treated accordingly and any suggestion that he is responsible for any binder missing or other classified information is completely false,” Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, said in a statement to CNN.
Although Trump has not been directly linked to the binder’s disappearance, rolling stone reported last year, that In the final days of his presidency, Trump told his advisers that he must preserve Russia-related documents to prevent their destruction by his enemies.
Sources said rolling stone that the former president raised concerns that the incoming Biden administration would seek to “shred,” bury or destroy documents containing “evidence” that Trump was harmed in some way by federal investigations into Russian election interference.
Intelligence officials had resisted for a long time Trump’s efforts to declassify the document continued to thwart his efforts after leaving office. Several of the hastily drafted versions of the binder are now preserved at the National Archives, and it is certainly possible that if Trump regains the presidency in 2024, he will revive his efforts to secure the release of their contents.