Questions/assumptions about Secret/Top Secret documents.

[Tommy Carcetti]

I don't necessarily expect an answer, but if someone is lucky enough to be "in the know" and can legally provide input, feel free to divulge.

Is it correct to assume that any documents marked "Secret" and "Top Secret" are:

1. Kept in containers under lock and key
2. Envelopes containing them are sealed, and if the seal is ever broken, it is denoted and then resealed.
3. Diligently inventoried
4. Have a time and date record of all individuals who accessed them and when they accessed them

So if even one of those items goes missing, it will be very easy for those "in the know" to know what is missing.

Also, for such documents that are accessible to a President, I would assume they are kept within a centralized location somewhere within the White House, no? They wouldn't be scattered about hodge podge, right?

Again, if anyone might have any insight into this, I would love to know more.

[James48]

1. Not necessarily.

It is pretty much assumed that only authorized eyes would even have access to these kinds of docs.

Yes, they would be kept in a locked container, but not necessarily would they have a sign-out sheet.

(Yes #1, not necessarily for 2,3,4. )

[WVreaper]

2. That leads to another question,

If the answers to the above questions are yes, yes, yes and yes, how did TFG manage to get these documents out of the White House?

[lapfog_1]

3. the assumptions are not quite accurate.

as for how they exited the WH... the President could have simply stuffed them into a box and directed someone to take the box to a moving van for transport to wherever. if someone had opened the box and thumbed through the documents they could have raised the alarm just based on the cover sheet markings (as you can see from the photos)

[gulliver]

4. In my experience, they're kept in safes.

And there's a list in the safe or group of safes where you sign out the document. It really is quite a bit like a library. In the case of classified documents, you don't want to have one that isn't signed out to you. You don't leave it sitting around. You most certainly don't copy it.

Keeping a document that belongs in a safe in a cardboard box in a room that "people" have the keys to? In a building where people can just walk in? To me, that's crazy if you're into staying out of jail.

[dutch777]

5. I expect the WH, Prez and those immediately around him are not subject to same restrictions

as wider SCIF protocols. Not to say the rules don't apply, but almost everything held and discussed in the WH is by its nature, sensitive. Maybe not all at the level of Secret or Top Secret SCI but still not to be shared casually. I suspect when the Prez and aides get on the choppers for Camp David or head to AF One, highly classified materials are tossed in briefcases and go along for the work to continue. While physical security of fire proof combo locked safes, bank vault like doors, no windows and armed guards are the norm for SCIFs, given the level of security around the president, and the assumption the Prez and entourage take keeping the nation's secrets secure a priority, that is likely considered to be equivalent of being in a SCIF. What that didn't anticipate of course is someone as cavalier and ignorant as TFG.

[global1]

6. You Mean - Like A Library?......nt (sarcasm)

[skip fox]

7. Side comment: DOJ has known what Trump took for over a year.

Because of logs registering the chain-of-custody of these documents DOJ knew precisely what Trump took as early as late winter 2021.

Which means:

They surely knew which documents had not been returned in June of this year. (That means they didn't need human intelligence to tell them that Trump still retained documents, although they might have benefited by knowing where these documents may be at Mar-a-Largo.)

They know if he still hasn't returned documents and what those documents are.

Since none of these documents are originals, they know what is contain in them and what Trump has "over them" if he was to threaten blackmail.