A folder with intelligence data about Russia mysteriously disappeared from the White House: it has not been found for several years

At the end of Donald Trump's presidency, a folder containing highly classified information related to Russian election interference went missing. That raised alarm among intelligence officials that some of the most closely guarded national security secrets of the United States and its allies could be exposed. The publication told in more detail CNN.

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The disappearance, which had not previously been reported, was so alarming that intelligence officials briefed Senate Intelligence Committee leaders last year about the missing material and the government's efforts to recover it, the sources said.

In the more than two years since Trump left office, the missing intelligence appears to have never been found.

The folder contained raw intelligence collected by the United States and its NATO allies about Russian agents, including the sources and methods that formed the basis of the US government's assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Trump win the 2016 election.

This intelligence was so secret that lawmakers and congressional aides with top secret clearances could only view the material at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

The folder was last seen at the White House during Trump's final days in office. The President ordered it brought there to declassify numerous documents related to the FBI's Russia investigation. Under the supervision of then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, the folder was reviewed by Republican aides as they worked to redact the most sensitive information so it could be declassified and made public.

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The Russian intelligence was just a small part of a collection of documents in a folder described as being 10 inches (25,4 cm) thick and containing a wealth of information about the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the 2016 Trump-Russia campaign. But raw intelligence on Russia is among the most sensitive classified materials, and senior Trump administration officials have repeatedly tried to prevent the president from releasing the documents.

The day before he left office, Trump issued an executive order declassifying much of the folder's contents, sparking a flurry of activity in the final 48 hours of his presidency. The White House created several copies of the folder with redacted documents, which were planned to be distributed throughout Washington to Republicans in Congress and right-wing journalists.

Instead, the copies originally sent were hastily removed at the direction of White House lawyers, who demanded additional edits.

Minutes before Joe Biden's inauguration, Meadows rushed to the Justice Department to hand over a redacted copy for a final review. Years later, the Justice Department has yet to release all the documents, despite Trump's declassification order. Additional copies, with varying levels of editing, ended up in the National Archives.

But an undecrypted version of the folder containing classified raw intelligence went missing during the chaotic final hours of the Trump administration. The circumstances of her disappearance are still shrouded in mystery.

U.S. officials have repeatedly refused to discuss the government's attempts to find the folder or confirm that any intelligence was missing.

According to a US official familiar with the matter, the folder was not among the classified items found during a search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort last year, and the FBI did not then seek intelligence related to the president's residence when it obtained a search warrant for the president's residence. Russia.

The June indictment against Trump for mishandling classified documents at Mar-a-Lago makes no mention of the missing folder containing intelligence on Russian election interference.

Version about folder location

Cassidy Hutchinson, one of Meadows' top aides, testified before Congress and wrote in her memoirs that she believed Meadows took home an unedited version of the folder. She said the folder was kept in Meadows' safe and she saw him leave the White House with it.

“I’m pretty sure she went home with Meadows,” Hutchinson said in closed testimony before the committee on Jan. 6, according to a transcript released last year.

But Meadows' lawyer categorically denies that his client mishandled any classified information at the White House and says any suggestion that he was responsible for missing classified information is "absolutely false."

“Mr Meadows was well aware of and adhered to the requirements for the proper handling of classified materials. Any such material he handled or was in his possession was handled accordingly, and any suggestion that he was responsible for the missing folder or other sensitive information is completely false, said Meadows' lawyer, George Terwilliger. “Any person or organization that suggests they are responsible for something missing does not have the facts and should exercise great caution before making false claims.”

In the years since Trump left office, his allies have sought to obtain the redacted archive to make it public, filing a lawsuit earlier this year against the Justice Department and the National Archives. And Trump's lawyers are now seeking access to classified intelligence obtained during the assessment of the 2016 election as they prepare to defend him against charges related to attempts to rig the 2020 election.

This account of how the classified file found its way into the White House, how it disappeared after Trump left office, and the questions it raises is based on interviews with more than a dozen sources familiar with the matter, all of whom asked for information. anonymity to discuss this sensitive topic.

Safe inside a safe at the CIA

The missing binder is at the heart of one of the most controversial fights then-President Trump has waged behind the scenes. Despite fierce opposition from his own national security officials, Trump has spent years trying to declassify material that he says shows the FBI's investigation of his campaign was a fraud.

The folder's history dates back to 2018, when Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, led by Chairman Devin Nunes, wrote a secret report alleging that the Obama administration misrepresented intelligence in assessing that Russian President Vladimir Putin helped Trump win the election. 2016 elections.

The Republican report, which criticizes the "mastery" of the intelligence community, scrutinizes highly classified intelligence from 2016 that assessed Putin and Russia were trying to help the Trump campaign.

Republicans struck a deal with the CIA in which the committee provided a safe for its documents, which was then placed in a CIA vault, leading some officials to characterize it as a "safe within a safe."

Republican and Democratic sources disagreed on the substance of the report. According to GOP sources familiar with the details of the report, it alleges that the intelligence community's assessment was distorted by senior Obama administration officials to exclude evidence that Russia actually wanted Hillary Clinton to win in 2016 and in the process exaggerate. the significance of data indicating that Russia preferred Trump.

However, Democratic sources say the Republican accusations were exaggerated. According to one of the sources, the intelligence cited in the report actually proves the opposite of what Republicans have claimed - it suggests that Russia interfered in the US election and sought to personally manipulate Trump and help him win.

The Democrats' view was reaffirmed in 2020 by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee, which concluded that the 2016 assessment was a "reliable intelligence product" and that analysts were not under political pressure to reach certain conclusions, refuting Nunes' claims.

National security leaders resist

Nunes' 2018 report was one of many documents related to the Russia investigation that Trump and his allies wanted to make public.

But Trump's national security officials, particularly CIA Director Gina Haspel, have stubbornly resisted releasing the report and other documents on Russia for fear of revealing sources and methods. These controversies have dogged Haspel throughout her time in the Trump administration.

Privately, Trump has signaled that he would like to get his hands on the Republican report. During one conversation in October 2020, he suggested personally visiting CIA headquarters and demanding access to it.

Ahead of the 2020 election, two of Trump's intelligence chiefs—acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and his successor John Ratcliffe—declassified some documents and intelligence related to Russia and the FBI. But the House report remained classified.

Trump considered firing Haspel after the election as he pushed for the release of more information about the Russia investigation. At least one Trump adviser suggested replacing Haspel with Kash Patel, an aide to Nunes in 2018 when the report was being prepared. In 2019, Patel went to work for Trump on the National Security Council and then became chief of staff to the acting head of the Department of Defense in the final months of the Trump administration.

In December 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr worked with Ratcliffe to try to dissuade Trump from declassifying at least some intelligence related to Russia, arguing that doing so would harm national security, people familiar with the matter said. Barr and aides in his office pushed the FBI and intelligence agencies to meet Trump's demands to release more information, and that pressure continued after Barr left office, other current and former officials said.

At some point after Haspel's election, FBI Director Christopher Wray and NSA Director Gen. Paul Nakasone rushed to Capitol Hill to speak with congressional intelligence leaders about their deep concerns about Trump's possible release of the material, the sources said.

Secrets are coming to the White House

On Dec. 19, four days after Barr announced his resignation, Nunes met with Meadows at the White House to discuss how to declassify documents related to the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia.

Eleven days later, sources said a copy of the Republican report had been delivered to the White House as part of a massive file of documents about Russia and the FBI investigation. Hutchinson told the committee on Jan. 6 that she signed for the documents when they arrived at the White House.

Over the next few days, Meadows discussed the documents with then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone and also met with Republican staffers on the House Intelligence Committee to review them, Hutchinson said.

In his book about his time as Trump's chief of staff, Meadows wrote that Trump demanded the documents be brought to the White House.

“I have personally reviewed every page to ensure that the declassification proposed by the President will not inadvertently reveal sources and methods,” he wrote.

Along with the Republican report, which scrutinized intelligence on Russia, the folder included: FBI surveillance warrants against a Trump campaign adviser from 2017; recordings of an interview with Christopher Steele, author of the infamous Trump-Russia dossier; FBI reports from a confidential source related to the Russia investigation; internal FBI and Justice Department text messages and emails, and other documents.

The version of the folder that Hutchinson signed was kept in a safe in Meadows' office except when congressional staff were working on it, she said.

“He wanted to keep her locked up. He didn't want it to become widely known, Hutchinson said at the committee's Jan. 6 meeting. “I just know Mr. Meadows.” He wouldn't copy that folder."

In her book, Hutchinson recalls the moment Meadows asked her to get a file and complained when she told him it was in the safe.

“I asked you not to let her out of your sight. It should have been in your desk drawer,” Meadows told her.

“My desk drawer, Mark, is not a place for secret documents. It's in the safe. You have nothing to worry about,” Hutchinson replied.

After committee aides completed their suggested edits, additional copies were made at the White House so the folder could be declassified and made public.

Unsuccessful implementation

Meanwhile, at the FBI, senior officials tried to protect the most sensitive details and limit the damage from what they considered insufficient redactions.

“Any further declassification would reveal sensitive intelligence collection techniques, harm relationships with foreign partners, jeopardize the position of the U.S. intelligence community, potentially violate court orders limiting the dissemination of FISA information, and jeopardize confidential sources of information,” he wrote. a senior FBI official to White House officials.

On January 19, 2021, Trump issued an order declassifying "a folder of materials related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Crossfire Hurricane."

The White House planned to distribute the declassified documents throughout Washington, including to right-wing journalist and Trump ally John Solomon. But Trump's order did not lead to their release, and in early 2023, Solomon sued the Department of Justice and the National Archives demanding access to the documents.

His court papers provide graphic details of how this all happened at the last minute.

Solomon claims that on the evening of January 19, Meadows invited him to the White House to review several hundred pages from the declassified folder. One of Solomon's employees was even allowed to leave the White House with declassified documents in a paper bag.

“Solomon’s staff began an operation to scan the complete set of documents that were to be released the next morning,” Solomon’s lawyers wrote in a court filing. “But as they were setting up the equipment, they got a call from the White House asking them to return the documents that were still under embargo because the White House wanted to make some additional changes to the information under the Privacy Act.”

Hutchinson writes in her book that Cipollone told her after 22:30 p.m. on Jan. 19 to have Meadows pick up the files that had been given to Solomon.

“The folders are a complete disaster. They are still full of classified information,” Hutchinson quotes Cipollone as saying. — These folders must return to the White House. Right now".

The documents were returned the next morning, Jan. 20, after being picked up by a Secret Service agent in a bag from Whole Foods, Hutchinson said.

How quickly can we get this to the Department of Justice?

On the morning of January 20, the last day of Trump's presidency, Meadows rushed to the Justice Department to hand over a copy of the folder of documents that Trump had ordered declassified for final review.

Hutchinson told the committee that sometime between 11:00 and 11:30 that day, Meadows left the White House and rushed to deliver a copy of the folder to the Justice Department.

Hutchinson remembers Meadows asking his security, “How quickly can we get this to the Department of Justice?”

Meadows, along with the folder, handed over a memo in which he instructed the Justice Department to conduct its own review of the confidentiality of the bulk of the documents declassified by Trump before they were published.

“I am returning the bulk of the file of declassified documents to the Department of Justice (including any that appear to raise privacy concerns) with the direction that the Department must promptly conduct a review of the Privacy Act to the standards that the Department of Justice would normally apply, redact materials accordingly and publish the remaining materials as amended,” Meadows wrote in the memo.

Solomon's lawyers claim in the lawsuit: Meadows "promised Solomon that he would receive a revised file. However, this never happened.”

As for the unedited version of the folder, Hutchinson writes in her book that she saw Meadows get into his limousine on the night of January 19 with "the original folder tucked under his arm."

“What the hell is Mark doing with an unedited Crossfire Hurricane folder?” Hutchinson remembers asking herself as Meadows left.

When Meadows' assistant looked into his safe for the last time before leaving the White House, she said the folder was no longer there.

“I don’t think it would have been something he would have destroyed,” Cassidy Hutchinson told the committee on Jan. 6. “She was never returned and never left our office to go anywhere.” It stayed in our safe most of the time."

Terwilliger, Meadows' lawyer, disputes Hutchinson's claims and argues that his client did not deal with classified documents at the White House.

The hunt continues

Even after Trump left office, the hunt for the folder continued on several fronts.

About a year later, Senate Intelligence Committee leaders were briefed by intelligence officials about the disappearance of raw Russian intelligence contained in an unredacted version of the folder and about government efforts to find it.

At the same time, Trump allies were trying to restore access to a declassified version of the folder that Meadows turned over to the Justice Department.

In June 2022, Trump appointed Solomon and Patel as his representatives at the National Archives, who were authorized to review the president's records. Solomon's lawsuit cites email exchanges showing how Solomon and Patel tried to gain access to a folder of documents once they were appointed Trump representatives.

“There is a folder with documents from the Russia investigation that the president declassified by executive order in his last few days in office. It is about 10 inches thick,” Solomon wrote in June 2022 to Gary Stern, the archives’ general counsel. “We would like to make copies (in digital or paper format) of all documents that were declassified on his orders and included in the file.”

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In February and March, the FBI released several hundred pages of heavily redacted internal documents from its Russia investigation under the Freedom of Information Act after conservative groups filed lawsuits demanding documents from the probe.

In June, the Justice Department said in dismissing Solomon's lawsuit that the release of the FBI documents satisfied Meadows' request for a Privacy Act review and that it "resulted in the posting of the majority of the file" on the FBI website.

In response, Solomon said the documents the FBI released were only "a small portion of the contents of the folder, with significant additional redactions."

Last July, Meadows told Solomon in an interview that he turned over the documents to the Justice Department out of an "abundance of caution."

“We gave them these declassified documents (I want to emphasize that they were declassified documents) to do some final editing of some of the data with the instruction that they should distribute it,” Meadows said. “We expected them to do it in a few days at most, but here we are, several years later.”

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