Defense Secretary explains how keeping classified documents could harm national security.

Former Secretary of Defense Warns of Potential National Security Impact

Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has expressed concern over former President Donald Trump’s retention of classified national defense information. According to Esper, this could have serious consequences for America’s ability to respond to global political scenarios.

Esper, who was nominated by Trump, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that the charges in the federal indictment against the former president were “very troubling” and “disturbing.”

“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,” he said. “And, look, 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.”

Esper emphasized the potential risks if a foreign state were to gain access to material recovered from Mar-a-Lago. He explained that it could expose “America’s vulnerabilities or the weaknesses of the United States military.”

“Think about how that could be exploited, how that could be used against us in a conflict, how an enemy could develop countermeasures, things like that,” he said. “Or in the case of the most significant piece that was raised in the allegation about U.S. plans to attack Iran, think about how that affects our readiness, our ability to prosecute an attack, if indeed we know that Iran eventually develops a nuclear weapon and we need to act on it.”

“I mean, those things affect our ability to effectively execute policy and could also affect, again, the lives of our military members who are sent forward to do such type of operations,” he added. “So, I’m quite concerned about this. These are very serious allegations and need to be taken seriously by everybody involved.”