Former President Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary Mark Esper recently accused Donald Trump of endangering U.S. security with his improper retainment of classified documents.
Esper recently became the latest ex-Trump official to denounce his boss’ handling of government secrets when he joined CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday for State of the Union.
Tapper asked Esper for his thoughts on the 37 criminal counts Trump faces in his indictment, and if the former president’s actions put U.S. national security at risk.
“The revelations are very troubling, disturbing, and yes. If the allegations are true that it contained information about our nation’s security, about our vulnerabilities, about other items, it could be quite harmful to the nation,” Esper said. “No one is above the law, and so I think this process needs to play out and people held to account….the president held to account.”
When asked to explain why Trump was determined to hold onto the classified documents in his possession, Esper said “People have described him as a hoarder when it comes to these types of documents. But clearly, it was unauthorized, illegal, and dangerous.”
Esper also likened Trump’s case to the charges against Jack Teixeira, the Air National Guardsman who was arrested earlier this year for allegedly leaking highly classified military documents on an online chatroom.
Tapper asked Esper to explain the risks from Trump’s storage of documents around Mar-a-Lago, so Esper described how classified information could be exploited against the U.S. if a foreign agent were to discover the contents.
When Tapper asked him if Trump could ever be entrusted with the nation’s secrets again, Esper answered: “Based on his actions — again, if proven true under the indictment by the special counsel — no.”
I mean, it’s just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation’s security at risk. You cannot have these documents floating around. They need to be secured. We know how that happens. The only authorized persons that are allowed to receive documents or receive information from documents. So we’ve got to take this very seriously. These are serious issues.
