Tag Archives: classified documents

Mar-a-Largo raid was said to be about documents relating to nuclear weapons as Garland prepares to unseal parts of the warrant

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” — President Harry S. Truman

Important Takeaways:

  • Donald Trump Mocks Claim He Had Classified Documents on Nuclear Weapons at Mar-a-Lago
  • The Washington Post cited “people familiar with the investigation,” who claimed the FBI was searching Trump’s home for “classified documents relating to nuclear weapons.”
  • No other details were provided.
  • “Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more,” Trump wrote on social media.
  • “Why wouldn’t the FBI allow the inspection of areas at Mar-a-Lago with our lawyers, or others, present,” he asked. Made them wait outside in the heat, wouldn’t let them get even close – said “ABSOLUTELY NOT.”
  • The former president also raised concerns the FBI was planting information on site, as some of his supporters have speculated.
  • Some details of the raid are expected to be released after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday the Department of Justice had filed a motion to unseal parts of the warrant, citing “substantial public interest” in the details.
  • Trump agreed to cooperate.

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U.S. charges ex-intelligence analyst with leaking classified documents

FILE PHOTO: A police vehicle blocks an entrance into the National Security Administration (NSA) facility in Fort Meade, Maryland, U.S. March 30, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron/File Photo/File Photo

By Sarah N. Lynch and Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A former intelligence analyst was arrested on Thursday over allegations he illegally obtained and disclosed classified national defense information to a journalist, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The analyst, Daniel Everette Hale, 31, of Nashville, Tennessee, had worked at the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and began communicating with the reporter starting in 2013, the department said.

Classified documents were later published by the reporter’s online news outlet, the government alleged, without naming the publication or the journalist.

Reuters could not immediately determine the lawyer representing Hale.

The charges unsealed against Hale on Thursday marked the latest in a broad crackdown on media leaks by the Justice Department that started when Jeff Sessions was Attorney General.

During the Trump administration, the government has filed several criminal cases against leakers, including former intelligence analyst Reality Winner who divulged a report about Russian interference in the 2016 election to the Intercept news website.

Hale, who had served in the U.S. Air Force, is charged with five criminal counts, each carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, the Justice Department said.

According to the indictment, Hale was assigned to work at the NSA while serving on Air Force active duty from December 2011 to May 2013, and later that year also worked as a defense contractor assigned to the NGA.

In April 2013 while he was still at the NSA, prosecutors say Hale met a reporter at a book tour event in Washington.

The next month, Hale confided to a friend that the reporter wanted him to “tell my story about working with drones at the opening screening of (the reporter’s) documentary about the war and the use of drones,” according to the indictment.

The next month, Hale confided to a friend that the reporter wanted him to “tell my story about working with drones … and the use of drones,” according to the indictment.

After multiple meetings with the reporter, the government said, in February 2014 Hale printed six documents from his classified computer related to his work at NGA and then texted the reporter to see if they could meet in Washington.

The documents were later published by the reporter’s online news outlet, the indictment says.

Hale is accused of printing a total of 36 top secret documents from his computer, nine of which were related to his NGA work.

Of those, he allegedly provided 17 to the reporter or to the reporter’s news outlet.

Hale is due to make an initial appearance in federal court in Nashville on Thursday.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Bill Trott)