Empty Files Makes Mar-a-Lago ‘Three Alarm Fire’ as Massive Security Breach

Jennifer Rubin, the Washington Post conservative “never-Trumper” has covered politics and foreign affairs for a long time. More importantly, she’s surveyed the “DC scene” for a long time and has a nose for what is going on “off the record.” When Rubin starts making serious accusations, it’s worth listening. She hears things, and she may be hearing about some of the stuff found in Mar-a-Lago but can’t report it yet.

In her latest column, Rubin says that even Biden’s DOJ and FBI, along with the rest of the nation, aren’t taking the security breach at Mar-a-Lago seriously enough:

The extent of the national security crisis Trump thrust upon us has not yet been fully appreciated. The more detailed inventory released on Friday is jaw-dropping. As the Associated Press reports: “Though the inventory does not describe the content of the documents, it shows the extent to which classified information — including material at the top-secret level — was stashed in boxes at the home and mixed among newspapers, magazines, clothing and other personal items.” The volume of documents is even more troubling.

And here is where Rubin demonstrates her experience. Regarding the 43 files with missing contents and all the questions about where they could possibly go and whether or not they can be traced:

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From former FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi’s vantage point, “It is a three alarm fire. … I’m unclear as to whether the empty folders represent missing material, or, whether those contents were intermingled throughout the seized items.” As he tells me, “The problem, of course, is that even the FBI might not be able to determine what was supposed to be in those folders. … What a mess.”

It is not just a national security mess, but the empty files near compel DOJ to act:

Former prosecutor Barbara McQuade tells me: “Finding empty folders marked classified must have made investigators sick to their stomachs.” She adds: “Not only does it raise the possibility that sensitive information may have landed in the wrong hands, but it also makes it almost impossible to decline to file criminal charges against Trump and the explosive sideshow that will come with it, an unenviable task for any prosecutor.”

There are some who believe that it is best to leave open the possibility that DOJ works out a closed-door deal with Trump’s attorneys, no prosecution in exchange for Trump not running and getting out of politics, however hard that might be to police. Some of us have never considered it possible or preferable. But with intelligence just flat “missing” – then, yes, it does compel DOJ. You can’t just take the nation’s top secrets and then say you don’t know what happened to them.

But it’s also likely that the FBI knows far more than they’re saying with respect to what Trump was doing with those files. The FBI might have sought to enforce the subpoena already filed if they had wanted to do half-measures. Yet they took the risk to do a search warrant. It is likely that the FBI knows what Trump was doing with the files and why some are missing. There is a lot going on behind the scenes, and Rubin likely knows some of it and is thus writing that this is more serious than people even appreciate.

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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman