Trump Took Classified Information to Write Memoir, Suggests Mike Turner

Representative Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, said Sunday that former President Donald Trump allegedly kept classified White House documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence to write his memoirs.

CBS News’ host Ed O’Keefe asked Turner during an interview on Face the Nation: “What use could a former president have for classified or top secret information once he’s left office? Why bring it home with him to Florida?

“Well, I don’t know. I mean, you have to ask him. But certainly, we all know that every former president has access to their documents. It’s how they write their memoirs,” Turner, who is also the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, responded. “They don’t have…great recall of everything that’s occurred in their administration.”

His remarks come after the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida following an approval from Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this month to retrieve alleged top secret (TS) and sensitive compartmentalized information (SCI).

Above, GOP Representative Mike Turner of Ohio speaks during a House Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. on November 20, 2019. Turner said on Sunday that former President Donald Trump kept classified White House documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence to write his memoirs. Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Turner’s speculation on Sunday was criticized online, with some saying that Trump didn’t “steal” those documents to write his memoirs.

“No, Mike Turner, Trump did not steal classified docs because he was ‘writing his memoir’ dude can barely write his own name, let alone read,” comedian Noel Casler tweeted.

Meanwhile, conservative lawyer George Conway tweeted: “Can’t imagine how our hyperliterate, super punctilious, and ultraveracious #2XIMFPOTUS could possibly research and write his memoirs without maintaining numerous purloined boxes of Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information in a storage room at his insecure resort club.”

Documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago reportedly included information related to nuclear weapons and “highly classified programs,” with some legal experts saying that Trump is suspected of being in violation of the Espionage Act for keeping those documents. Espionage Act violators could face up to 10 years in jail, a fine, or both.

The ex-president’s office recently told Just the News that he had a “standing order” to declassify documents with sensitive information so he can take it to his Florida home. However, former Justice Department (DOJ) official Mary McCord said that she didn’t find a “plausible argument that he had made a conscious decision about each one of these to declassify them before he left,” and added that the former president had no authority to declassify information after leaving office.

Last weekend, Turner was asked on CNN whether or not publicly releasing the names of the FBI agents involved in the raid poses danger to federal law enforcement.

“Members of Congress have condemned, and I did, and all of the Republican members of my committee jointly…condemned any violence against any law enforcement officers,” he said. “We greatly appreciate the service of all of our FBI agents, men and women, who are serving their nation.”

His remarks came after Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, promoted an article by conservative website Breibart that published an unredacted version of the search warrant, publicly disclosing the names of two FBI agents.

Newsweek reached out to Trump’s press office for comment.