Nuclear Document ‘Leak’ Could Have Been Calculated and Planned at the Highest Levels

I am speculating. This is opinion.

The only person or people who “know” how the information regarding a country’s defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, came to be leaked to the Washington Post is the person or people behind the leak. Even Devlin Barrett and Carol Leonnig, the Post reporters who obtained the information, likely don’t know the process by which they came about obtaining the information.

Unless you believe it is entirely coincidental that the FBI kept the specificity of this file: A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, entirely secret for a month, only to have two people (double-sourced) leak the matter on the first workday after Judge Cannon ordered the FBI to submit all of the materials collected to a special master, you have to consider the leak planned, and you would have good reason to believe it was coordinated. This type of plan and coordination regarding this type of secret information only occurs at the highest levels.

It is true that Judge Cannon’s order does “allow” the federal government to use the files found at Mar-a-Lago to evaluate the dangers posed to our national security posture, given the breach. And yet, if charges are filed against Trump, it will be the most scrutinized case in history. Every detail would be subject to an appeal that a court could use to toss the verdict or even charges prior to trial.

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Now put yourself in the position of an FBI agent who works in counter-intelligence, along with other specialists from the CIA, NSA, DoD, etc. How are you going to navigate Cannon’s vague order about using the material for national defense versus not using it to further any criminal investigation and possible prosecution of Donald Trump? You are going to miss on the side of not using the materials, at least if future criminal charges are a high priority.

And that’s a problem.

There is a sense of urgency one can feel in both the people solely looking at the breach of our national security (and internationally) and the people investigating all of this as a criminal matter. It is necessarily so. Investigating Donald Trump’s possible criminality unveils the threats to our national security. But Judge Cannon ordered the FBI to stop using all information it learned from the documents in its criminal investigation until a special master “rules” on a privilege that has never been defined and is subject to a million appeals. This is as ridiculous as it is untenable as it is dangerous.

A hypothetical will be helpful. Let’s say that the documents referenced in last night’s leak have three sets of fingerprints on them. The fingerprints include Donald Trump’s prints, an expected and innocent set of prints from someone in the CIA who handles such matters, and another set of prints that remain unidentified but have clearly handled the documents containing such critical information. Obviously, the third set of prints must be identified from a national security perspective. Is there a Russian spy who has seen this? So under Judge Cannon’s order, they can be used by the Counter-Intelligence division and NSA (or whatever department) to determine who else might have handled the documents, was it a Russian, a Saudi, an American in the MI Complex, or maybe someone tied to Trump and organized crime? It clearly is a national security matter, correct?

Hold on. It is just as clear that investigating those fingerprints, fingerprints that are unquestionably linked to information obtained from the documents, could lead directly to a conspiracy charge between Trump and the third person, whether it is a conspiracy to commit espionage or worse. So you charge Trump with conspiracy to commit espionage. But Trump’s lawyers argue that you used those Mar-a-Lago documents in a criminal investigation, not for national security purposes, against Judge Cannon’s order, and thus the evidence must be suppressed, and suddenly the case is tossed out.

See the problem?

Good, because so does the FBI, the DOJ, and – likely very soon, so will the 11th Circuit. The leak regarding the situation’s seriousness is likely an inchoate appeal, a heads-up as to the seriousness of an emergency expedited appeal to be filed within the next 48 hours to a week, and it will help the DOJ immensely if the 11th Circuit (and the SCOTUS) knows the seriousness of this stuff ahead of time. It helps the Justice Department whenever a reasonable person says, “Good God, he had that?” Including reasonable judges.

The United States government is trying to deal with the fallout – international fallout – that comes about when a document that explosive is found on Trump’s person, Trump – the guy who will sell anything. The feds don’t have the time nor the inclination to dance around Cannon’s ridiculous ruling, and the more serious the documents found at Mar-a-Lago, the more irresponsible, absurd, and dangerous Cannon’s order becomes.

It would appear that the DOJ-FBI would prefer that the 11th Circuit and the entire country know that this is more serious than you know, so serious that Cannon’s pitiful order operates as a wrench flying straight into a jet engine currently at full power with afterburners. The conclusion is that someone high up arranged for a very coordinated leak.

Or, it’s just a complete coincidence that this explosive (literally) leak came out the first workday after Cannon’s order and fantastic reporting by the Post.

I know what I think.

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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman