Trump Mishandled Some of the Most Secretive Intelligence Documents, Indictment Says

The classified documents that former President Donald Trump is accused of mishandling appear to have included some of the most sensitive intelligence within the U.S. government information so secretive that only top leaders, including the president, have access to it.

Some of the documents Trump retained after leaving the White House, as detailed in the indictment against Trump that Justice Department prosecutors unsealed on Friday, are labeled as TOP SECRET//SPECIAL HANDLING. That label suggests they contain some of the intelligence communitys most guarded secrets about programs containing sensitive human sources foreign spies working for the U.S. or other intensely guarded methods of gathering information, such as taps into foreign electronic communications or other signals intelligence.

Special Handling governs the transfer of a document and is included on materials that go into the Presidents Daily Brief a high-level collection of analysis, previously in a binder, that the presidents intelligence briefer provides to him every day. Documents contained in that dossier which during the Obama administration transitioned to iPad format are colloquially known as red stripe for the distinctive marking across the top corners to impart the seriousness of their classification.