Trump's classified docs show ties to business, raising security concerns

Documents released from the ongoing investigation into former U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith's probes of ex-President Donald Trump have raised fresh security concerns and shed light on the former leader's alleged mishandling of classified materials.

Classified docs found commingled with trump's business interests

According to U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin, FBI investigators said in a 2023 memo that the classified documents kept by Trump after leaving office were 'pertinent to his business interests' and found commingled with other documents created later.

Raskin, a senior Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, made the disclosure in a letter sent Tuesday to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, which included details of the classified records handed over by the Justice Department.

Some of the sensitive documents were so highly classified that only six people in the entire U.S. government had access to them, while another box of classified materials was scanned, stored on a Trump aide's laptop for nearly two years and uploaded to a cloud storage service, raising further security concerns.

The records also indicate that Trump allegedly took classified documents on a June 2022 flight to his New Jersey golf club and showed a classified map to then top campaign official Susie Wiles and potentially others, according to his letter. Wiles now serves as White House chief of staff.

Raskin's letter accused Trump of potentially selling out national security to enrich himself, saying the documents reveal 'a President of the United States who may have sold out our national security to enrich himself.' The release of the evidence to the congressional committee may have also violated a gag order imposed by a Trump-appointed federal judge in the case, Raskin added.