{"id":1950853,"date":"2023-06-19T11:23:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T15:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-trump-defense-secretary-breaks-with-ex-president-over-classified-documents\/"},"modified":"2023-06-19T11:24:46","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T15:24:46","slug":"former-trump-defense-secretary-breaks-with-ex-president-over-classified-documents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-trump-defense-secretary-breaks-with-ex-president-over-classified-documents\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Trump defense secretary disagrees with ex-president on classified documents."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-trump-defense-secretary-breaks-with-ex-president-over-classified-documents%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1950853&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper Raises Concerns About Trump&#8217;s Handling of Classified Documents<\/h2>\n<p>Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has joined the growing chorus of former Trump officials expressing alarm over allegations that the former president mishandled classified documents. Esper, who served under Trump, has voiced doubts about Trump&#8217;s ability to protect the nation&#8217;s secrets if these allegations prove to be true.<\/p>\n<p>In recent weeks, it has been alleged that Trump took classified documents and obstructed a federal investigation aimed at retrieving them. Some of these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-trump-defense-secretary-breaks-with-ex-president-over-classified-documents\/\" title=\"Former Trump defense secretary disagrees with ex-president on classified documents.\">documents contained sensitive national security intelligence<\/a>, posing a potential risk to the lives of military personnel if they were to fall into the wrong hands.<\/p>\n<h3>Esper&#8217;s Troubling Assessment<\/h3>\n<p>During an interview on CNN, Esper expressed his deep concerns about the situation. &#8220;The revelations are very troubling, disturbing, and yes, I do,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If the allegations are true and these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-all-mar-a-lago-materials-were-declassified\/\" title=\"Trump: All Mar-a-Lago Materials Were \u2018Declassified\u2019\">documents contained information<\/a> about our nation&#8217;s security and vulnerabilities, it could be quite harmful to the nation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Esper emphasized that no one is above the law and stressed the importance of holding individuals accountable. &#8220;This process needs to play out and people held to account, the president held to account,&#8221; he asserted.<\/p>\n<h3>The Seizure of Classified Documents<\/h3>\n<p>The FBI seized a total of 102 documents from various locations at Mar-a-Lago, including an office, a bedroom, a ballroom, a bathroom, and a storage room. Out of these, 54 were marked as secret, and 17 were classified as top secret. The government&#8217;s 49-page indictment revealed that these classified documents contained information about U.S. nuclear capabilities, potential vulnerabilities to attack, and contingency plans for retaliation.<\/p>\n<p>Esper&#8217;s Assessment of Trump&#8217;s Trustworthiness<\/p>\n<p>When asked if Trump could be trusted with the nation&#8217;s security, Esper responded, &#8220;Based on his actions \u2014 again, if proven true under the indictment by the special counsel \u2014 no.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He further criticized Trump&#8217;s actions, stating, &#8220;It&#8217;s just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation&#8217;s security at risk. You cannot have these documents floating around. They need to be secured.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Esper emphasized the importance of authorized individuals being the only ones allowed to access classified information. &#8220;We&#8217;ve got to take this very seriously. These are serious issues,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<h3>Legal Charges Against Trump<\/h3>\n<p>The former president is facing multiple charges, including willful retention of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/joe-biden-rips-trump-for-doing-the-same-thing-the-obama-administration-did\/\" title=\"Joe Biden Rips Trump For Doing The Same Thing The Obama Administration Did\">national defense information<\/a>, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding and concealing documents, and making false statements. He recently pleaded not guilty during his arraignment in Miami.<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon has largely refrained from commenting on Trump&#8217;s case, with even Gen. Mark Milley, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declining to address the matter at a recent press conference.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">Click here<\/a> to read more from The Washington Examiner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper doubts former President Donald Trump&#8217;s ability to protect national secrets if the allegations against him are true. Joining a growing list of former Trump officials, Esper criticizes the ex-commander in chief for allegedly mishandling classified documents and obstructing a federal investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1950854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[7372,3998,7863,5407,21297,3779,3634],"class_list":["post-1950853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-classified","tag-defense","tag-disagrees","tag-documents","tag-ex-president","tag-secretary","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1950853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1950854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1950853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1950853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1950853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}