A guide to classified information and the Trump Mar-a-Lago warrant
The inventory of 28 seized items provides a glimpse of what was still being kept at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida residence and private beach club, more than a year after the National Archives and Records Agency began trying to retrieve presidential records improperly taken from the White House at the end of Trump’s presidency. It offers few details.
Here’s what you need to know about classified information to help decode some of the items included in the inventory list.
What is classified information?
Classified information refers to documents and other records that the government considers sensitive. Access is generally restricted to people who have passed the proper background checks.
There are three broad levels of classified information.
Confidential is defined as information that could “damage” national security if it is publicized, is the lowest level, according to Steven Aftergood, a security specialist at the Federation of American Scientists. The largest number of government workers and contractors — thousands upon thousands — have access to this information. It could include basic State Department cables and information provided by a foreign government, Aftergood said.
“Even if it doesn’t involve highly sensitive secrets, it would be marked as confidential,” Aftergood said. “And you do not want to release it, because it would complicate diplomatic relations with that foreign government.”
Secret is the next level of classification, referring to material that, if released, could cause “serious damage” to national security. Aftergood said this is the broadest category. The budget of a U.S. intelligence agency, for example, could be classified as “secret.”
The most sensitive information is classified as top secret, meaning it could cause “exceptionally grave danger” to national security. And within “top secret” exists a number of sub-classifications often dealing with the most protected pieces of American information and intelligence. Top-secret information could include weapon design and war plans.
Sensitive Compartmented Information, a category that falls under the “top secret” classification, includes information derived from sources and intelligence. That may be an electronic intercept or information provided by a human informant in a foreign country.
“The concern there is that if it were disclosed, then not only would national security be at risk, but the individual source or method could be, too,” Aftergood said.
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