We now have three US high-ranked executives—Biden, Pence, and Trump—who have mishandled classified documents! Previous execs (but not VP Harris?) were asked to check their home and non-government offices for others (all the way back to Reagan). They reported back that they had none, but I’m not sure I believe them. What I do believe is that there is an endemic and systematic complacency among top executives about government secrets that must be changed.
Just what is at risk? First, military secrets about weapons, both ours and our enemies. This hasn’t been mentioned that much by a media that has failed to do a complete job reporting on this scandal, but it’s really important. It’s a well-known phenomenon in science and technology research programs: Knowing something can be done makes it easier to get it done yourself; it also makes it easier for spies to find out how to do it if they know it exists. (For example, that old Israeli spy Pollard used that, and strict security around stealth tech was a response to it.) Second, reports on intel gathered about our enemies often discuss foreign contacts and methods that would be compromised if the reports are leaked, the contacts compromised to the point where those who are willing to help us abroad lose their lives. (Even when they escape and receive asylum, they can be compromised, as several cases in Britain showed, cases where Putin assassinated Russian sources living in the UK at the time.) These are just two out of many reasons documents and reports are classified, even to the point that they can only be used in special programs and read in SCIFs.
Trump is the most criminally insane for his mishandling of classified documents—for the number, for the public place he stored the documents he stole, and for his obstruction of the Archives and DoJ’s efforts to recover them. His excuses have been lame and idiotic. He should be in jail for many reasons, but mishandling these documents is an obvious one.
Biden and Pence are a bit less criminal; you might just call them careless (or their packers and movers?). Moreover, their reactions to the discovery of the documents in their residences and offices was beyond reproach compared to Trump’s; they turned them over immediately. But I’m afraid that there’s more to come from all three and possibly from other members of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of national government, all of them handling classified documents from time to time.
Most people—especially the military, espionage, and R&D grunts doing the real work—who mishandle classified documents can be prosecuted and lose their current jobs and never again have jobs where handling such documents is required. I suppose one could argue that Trump has already lost his—big time!—but he hasn’t yet been prosecuted for doing it or for the obstruction resisting the documents’ recovery. I also suppose that Biden can’t lose his job because sitting presidents can’t be prosecuted. Pence doesn’t fall into either category, so what should be done with him isn’t clear.
There has to be another worry about these three old boys: Senility! Did they just forget they had the documents? Trump has never offered that as an excuse for his peccadillos—it’s actually better than (to paraphrase) “I declassified them just by thinking about it” or “they’re pretty, and they’re mine”—but you’ve got to wonder about senility even with that great genius! The number of documents in his case belies that excuse of senility, of course, and he would never use it because he wants to run again in 2024. All three execs might be presidential candidates in 2024, in fact, so should we worry about trusting them with documents in the future? We hae term limits for presidents. Perhaps we need age limits too!
The biggest concern, though, is that this scandal shows that mishandling documents is systemic. Something has to be done to change the culture in the executive branch, but the other branches of government’s policies should be examined and possibly changed as well.