and that is how we got michael flynn as national security adviser for approximately five minutes. while he was under investigation as a potential foreign agent of the nation of turkey, and before he started lying to federal investigators about his communications with the russian government. when we all read in "the new york times" in may 2017 that they had hired him anyway, even though they knew, even though they had been warned, and we learned that the investigation into the matter is being led by a veteran espionage prosecutor, named brandon van grack, and remember, just my stomach flipping over the seriousness of this thing. there is one thing there is some shenanigans, there is some maybe not the best people, there is some incompetence, there is some cavalierness, some stuff to worry about here, but when it's the espionage prosecutor that has to be working on the case involving the new national security adviser, that is bad. right? your country has been put in a bad situation if a new president, a new administration, is playing games like that. if that's how it is starting, you

so from just damage to national security all the way up to exceptionally grave damage to national securitying that the intelligence community is going to do, i think you have accurately referred to as a damage assessment. they will be concerned, very concerned with figuring out to the best of their ability what types of harm to national security could occur if tease documents, this information or the information in these documents were to fall in people who are not authorized to receive them. that could be foreign adversaries, foreign spies, opportune iists, criminals, et cetera. that means not only looking at the documents themselves and assessing how sensitive are they, but trying to figure out who might have access to them. certainly within mar-a-lago we know this is a place that is open to visitors. there are often foreign guests there. we know these materials were stored at all different locations within the premises and we know that there have been foreign agents or foreign nationals who have gotten into mar-a-lago under false pretenses before. so some of the things that the departme

by talking to us, max risks arrest and jail under the national security law.eks, is whether or not i'll be able to leave hong kong before something goes down, before it's too late. bill: on the dawn of max's departure, the net dramatically tightens, as beijing takes down the remaining leadership of the pro-democracy movement. female: police arrested more than 50 people in a sweeping crackdown on pro-democracy figures in the city for allegedly violating the national security law. male: [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] bill: hong kong's government, on beijing's orders, sends a thousand police officers on raids across the city. male: [speaking foreign language] male: [speaking foreign language] bill: former politician claudia mo is taken away along with her three ex-legco colleagues we filmed on the day she packed up her office: all of them uer investition for the new crime of political subversion. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ bill: with the leadership gone, max fears he's now in beijing's sights. he knows he has to leave fast. max: my top emotions are fear and

threats and we want to know what was this imminent national security threat upon which this was based. we are also very concerned about the disturbing reports that there was an informant or 70 undercover at mar-a-lago or around former president donald trump and today we are seeing a letter to director ray demanding more from that he disclose the process by which that that informant was utilized were placed, what is the relationship between the fbi and the person that is reportedly been utilizing this process. we have a number of members that are going to speak each of us, the backyard and national security of classified information this is an issue that requires oversight and we will continue to demand this oversight i would like to turn over to brian fitzpatrick. brian fitzpatrick from the devaney former fbi agent. i want to start by saying no matter what angle you are looking at this from this is a tough time in our country we have too much distrust into many institutions in our democracy and country cannot survive its income and upon all of us to do that all a couple of t

national security. 35 years. there's not much that astonishes me, but i have to tell you, reading the classification markings, just the classification markings referred to in the affidavit made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. when you see h for human sources, when you see si for signals intelligence, it doesn't get any more gravely serious than that. literally human lives can be at stake. we are often talking about intelligence that is singular in nature. what does that mean? it means that it can only come from one source. the microphone in a foreign intelligence service headquarters that took a human source to plant it. the human source reporting on the illness of a world leader or the plans against us. it took 20 years to recruit that person. they may not have had to infiltrate human beings out of nation because they were at risk depending on how this damage assessment comes out and i'll say something that i don't think i've heard talk about in this busy day which is this information and the

national security interest. in fact that's the reason we classify things to try and describe the extent of the damage that would be done if released. so for example, a top secret information and if it is released according to the definitions, would cause grave damage to u.s. national security interest. so again the fact that these documents were kept at mar-a-lago, really does i think has great concern to the government right now. and not only are they trying to hold individuals to account, for this but also retrieving these documents because the access to them at mar-a-lago is something i think, a deep concern right now to the fbi and intelligence community. and so the damage assessment needs to be done, the termination about who actually had access to these documents. who conspired to infect illegally retain them? the usual things that they are first and foremost on the government's mind right now. >> who conducts? that that cannot be done in the public, i that will not happen in the press. we're not gonna get

that is extreme grave danger to our national security if they were exposed. so that they were guarded with nothing more than a padlock or whatever security they had at a hotel is deeply alarming. i have asked for, along with chairman maloney, a damage assessment by the intelligence community and a briefing to congress. >> will you get one? have you heard from the director of national intelligence? >> i have not heard back yet but i am confident we will get one. i'm confident the intelligence community will do a damage assessment. i think that is fairly routine when there has been the potential risk of disclosure of national security information or classified information. and what is to me most disturbing here is the degree to which at least from the public reporting it appears to be willful on the president's part. the keeping of these documents after the government was requesting them back and that adds another layer of concern. >> so if there were truly materials of this classification level and it's been publicly reported elsewhere that there were materials

threats and we want to know what was this imminent national security threat upon which this was based. we are also very concerned about the disturbing reports that there was an informant or 70 undercover at mar-a-lago or around former president donald trump and today we are seeing a letter to director ray demanding more from that he disclose the process by which that that informant was utilized were placed, what is the relationship between the fbi and the person that is reportedly been utilizing this process. we have a number of members that are going to speak each of us, the backyard and national security of classified information this is an issue that requires oversight and we will continue to demand this oversight i would like to turn over to brian fitzpatrick. brian fitzpatrick from the devaney former fbi agent. i want to start by saying no matter what angle you are looking at this from this is a tough time in our country we have too much distrust into many institutions in our democracy and country cannot survive its income and upon all of us to do that all a couple of t

according to national security police. they the allegedly conspired to publish inflammatory materials. lucky paula had taught bola yog i'm of pick up up, i'll put all her young, hates on the honey water amused the hung, wanting wolf done hate. they hung on see if i get on done her home, gone claim on gonna button one with my looking on what we're going to call. the police also rated the home of deputy assignment editor ronson chan. chan, who is also chairperson of the hong kong journalist association. was taken in for questioning, but released without charge by all dog groomers i. e dot shows, i'm a big how get and i forgot to some go the whole call to garrison's at law young quality gay. hi george holiday. my yeah, no fault. come y'all read up to a job or the asian both for age. all them from hours after the rate stand, news announced it would cease operations days later, independent new site citizen use said it to was shutting down chief editor, daisy lee blamed hong kong new environment. kids had auto. oh my god. bless

adviser, not just somebody to be a national security adviser to the new president, but the national security adviser, a guy they had been considering for that job, we learned at the time, had notified the trump transition team that there was a big problem with him potentially being a appointed national security adviser. a very serious problem. this guy who is being considered as national security adviser, he told the trump transition, hey, you know what? i feel like i ought to let you know. i'm under active federal investigation as a potentially an unregistered agent of a foreign power. i mean full stop right, there right? this is not like oh, i wanted to let you know i had a speeding ticket and getting points on my license. this is not like, you know, i'm in dispute with my town over my property tax bill. they say i'm short $200. i mean this is i'm under investigation for being a federal agent. excuse me, for being a foreign agent. i'm under federal investigation for potentially being the agent of a foreign power. if you're under federal investigation as a possible foreign agent, y

but these rights can be restricted for reasons including protection of national security. the government said the media landscape in hong kong is as vibrant as ever it's clear, many disagree. press freedom in hong kong. it's only going to get worse and worse. and we may have to rely on more and more on overseas new sol notes deemed all jeff, all don't, don't with night. so easy both full. they those and own thing. one more and more hong kong this overseas have also been speaking up. it's an extraordinary thing, but if you want to talk about hong kong nowadays, you have to go overseas to do so freely all regimes, the ones who control the narrative of what they are doing, feel that but one of their main duties is to control the media and this is been done with great vigor. it is now a very dangerous thing to be a journalist in home. but we don't fall ah, did the young virtuosos racing constables and dominating international competition? one, i want 8 make south korea's musical prodigy. one out to 0. ah august. oh, is there any braces for a tight? he contested votes as the co

the national security adviser.e been considering for that job according to the times, had notified the trump transition team that there was a big problem with him potentially being appointed national security adviser. a very serious problem. this guy who was being considered as national security adviser, he told the trump transition, hey, you know what? i feel like i have to let you know, i'm under active federal investigation as potentially unregistered agent of a foreign power. [laughs] full stop right there. it's not like i want to let you know, i had a speeding ticket i'm getting points on the license, i'm in a dispute with my property tax, build a and they say i am short 200 bucks but i know i'm not. this is i am under investigation for being a foreign agent. i am under federal investigation for being an agent of a foreign power. if you are under federal investigation of being a foreign agent, you can't work in the cafeteria at the white house. you can't get a job emptying trash cans in the congress. you certa

and national security cases. those are two separate divisions. the fact that these sort of things -- >> martha: i think we lost him. kash patel, we'll work on getting him back. he's making a good point here, bret. glad you're still with us. two different categories. you have criminal and national security. so what category based on what we've seen play out here do you think this was part of? >> well, it is a good point. i have also seen both sides when the department of justice decides to treat one as a national security case and another as criminal. and what is interesting is typically when you're dealing with a national security case, it's urgent and you don't have to jump through some of the hoops that you would need to on the criminal side and you can get to the documents and then you can later make a decision on the criminal side. here we don't have a clear perspective on what they are alleging the president has done wrong, whether it is an infraction surrounding his obligations on national security or is th

knowing or believing it could harm national security. important for national security. the second one is destruction or concealment of federal government documents. on the face of it says a person convicted could be barred from holding public office. we don't know if that's constitution. . finally obstruction, willfully tampering with documents or keeping them away from investigators. all three of these, none have anything to do with whether documents were classified or declassified. >> what's next? >> could be nothing. technically we won't see any further action on this case on the legal docket unless and until doj brings criminal charges against any person. if they do that, then this affidavit, the big document will go to that person so they can challenge the search. if not, we may not learn a whole lot through the formal legal channels. >> i have to let you go. some members of congress calling to see some of these documents that doj -- have you ever heard of investigators showing documents to politicians in the middle of an investigat

think that the new law should also prescribe certain powers bodies that are responsible for national security, information security is precisely a part of national security, and there should still be some attention or certain powers given to the national security and defense council. do you remember how much criticism was addressed to the national security and defense council that it violates the legislation and so on. when the pro-kremlin tv channels were closed, but thanks to the national security council, we managed to stop this information invasion, so definitely, as for the information sphere, the criteria must be clearly identified here where do threats arise in the field of information security, who should specifically respond to this? in principle, i absolutely share the position that pony evgenia said, but still , in continuation, i would like to say about prevention, which you did not mention, probably will not be enough to give additional powers, in my opinion, because it is really a security aspect. it is now during martial law and after the war in ukraine, after our victory, whic

and yes, i think in the national security cases you have a clear number of people, the lawyers are working on the case because they need to get security clearances themselves to review the underlying documents. in terms of figuring out what these things are, it is not hard. you could take a look at this really fast and know what was taken out of the white house. i think what is more concerning potentially and this gets to the conversation you were just having, is for what purpose was this removed from the white house. because i could tell, ari, no part of me sentimentally, and maybe you want to take your white house baseball with you, i can't think of any reason to pack up boxes of top secret information just to have some mementos around mar-a-lago. >> yeah, let's zero down on that. that gets obscured. you're making a deep point. let's put people's opinion of donald trump aside which could get in the way of the facts. you're saying its -- it is weird or suspicion or worse to amass this much material of this nature and march it out and go to those lengths to hide it and after you turn some

but there's some other complicating factors when you're talking about a national security defense involvingied information. the statute at issue involves national defense information, but information that is classified will generally always qualify as national defense information, and national defense information would not necessarily have to be classified, but almost always would be. but the problem is that once you go into court with a case involving national defense information, you have to reveal that national defense information to not only defense counsel but to jurors, and so that presents its own national security risk. so, there's a strange sort of inverse relationship sometimes between the ability to prosecute and the sensitivity of the national security information. because if it is so sensitive that our intelligence equity holders, that means all of our intelligence agencies responsible for collecting this information -- if it is so sensitive that they don't think it could be revealed to a jury, even under classified information procedures act and things like that, then it somet

national security and the intelligence community? . anyone who forgets that and acts outside the security rules that are set up in order to help them protect that presents a threat whether it's a purposeful one or whether it's an inadvertent one. so if you forget that you're a target and you don't follow the rules, you've opened yourself and consequently us up. >> did trump see himself as a target just simply due to the fact you just articulated because of his possession and access to our most sensitive secrets and programs? >> again, i'm always hesitant to say how someone thinks about themselves. i believe the president thought that he was above a lot of rules because he didn't need them, but i also would never presume to know what was in someone's heart. >> when you read that he traveled with boxes of classified materials on foreign trips and they were carted from hotel room to hotel room, i traveled the world with condi rice and steve hadley as national security adviser and deputy national security adviser. i had a stroke on their

we need to determine, is this a national security threat. as we all determine that, was there abuse of discretion by attorney general garland. >> you're awaiting that information you would like to get from doj. you mentioned hillary clinton. i would like to say a few things you said about hillary clinton's emails in may of that year. hillary clinton would be i an awful president as she has shown a blatant disregard for our laws. she has put our national security at risk for showing blase ant. in october you said, i believe her actions as secretary of state were not in accordance with the law. some of your comments were said before it was even clear what was in her emails. you're not holding donald trump to the same standard. why? >> well, there are -- there's a significant difference here. one, there was active transmission of ongoing diplomatic classified communications that were traveling through hillary clinton's server in her residence which are inain'tly going to be a risk. these are two-year-old documents in the president's residents.

i'm not a national security expert, better than i was a few hours ago. e terms used by the doj throughout the affidavit jumped out at me. that last, one ndi, stands for national defense information. and it's exactly what it sounds like. it's classified information related to national defence. or as it's described in the united states legal code, information relating to, quote, essential defence, industrial, and military emergency energy requirements relative to the national safety, welfare, and economy, particularly resulting from foreign military or economic actions, end quote. this is serious stuff. how about some of those other abbreviations? si, that stands for signals intelligence, or refers to communications that have been intercepted by our intelligence service, generally speaking electronic phone, email, texts, but kind of thing. hcs, it stands for human intelligence control system. it's it is ignition for a report by an intelligence officer that's based on confidential human sources. or as my colleague andrea mitchell, put it plainly earlier toda

. >> john kirby is the white house national security council strategic coordination communicated. -- communicator. -- their aim on -- kabul, afghanistan. he also talked about how speaker pelosi's visit to taiwan, saying president biden respects her decision to travel there. >> >> good afternoon everybody. so as the president spoke to yesterday, the united states under undertook a counterterrorism operation in kabul afghanistan on saturday at his direction, the u.s. intelligence targeted and killed ayman al zawahiri. al qaeda's leader. we know you have questions about this today and so we wanted to make sure that we had john kirby come back. he's going to talk about the specifics of that operation and the extension also of truce in yemen, which is incredibly important and any other foreign policy news of the day. with that, i give you john kirby, national national security council coordinator for strategic communications. >> it is clearly noted, if you've obviously been tracking the president's announcement yesterday that on 30 july, the united states undertook a precision counterterr

it is answers that question. >> our national security expert juliette hianan joins us now.ents up on the screen, and you heard our description of it. what is your assessment at this point? >> the picture is both so damning to the trump people in terms of any ability for them to claim that this was a regular process, a formal process, why didn't they just ask for? them they were willing to compromise. then the pictures of papers like that strewn on the floor belie any defense that there was carefulness on the trump part or they were willing to abide. just picking up on what elie was saying earlier on illegal stuff and the claims to l.a. and other lawyers, the national security implications are huge because what it shows from this just one picture is that mar-a-lago essentially was an open book to anyone willing to come in. those documents are not secure. not simply for anyone randomly passing by but also for foreign intelligence agents or foreigners who might have interest in it. that's a huge challenge, i want to say, and i keep saying to the biden administration. we focus

potential national security damage. a judge may be poised to give the former president at least one thing he has been asking for. plus, new attacks a new defense on joe biden's college debt relief plan. we will look at the underlying crisis when it comes to higher education. it is the abortion rights issue really changing the midterm landscape? a deep dive on. this coming up in the next hour, i will be joined live by charlie cruz to talk about his election battle with florida governor, ron desantis. you will want to stay tuned for that. we begin with a thursday hearing though now said to determine whether an independent third party will be appointed to review some of the documents the fbi obtained from trump's mar-a-lago. u.s. district judge, aileen cannon, a trump appointee has ordered a hearing. she has already signaled that she could be inclined to grant trump's request for a special master. she has also given the doj until tuesday to file a public response to that request and present a more detailed list of items ta

amy: the national security council fits in because the national security council serves at the pleasuref the president. it's a policy oriented body. i think one of the things my students and many people don't realize is intelligence is not designed to make policy, intelligence is an input to policy. intelligence is not supposed to have a dog in the policy fight. the nse is where policy and intelligence come together, but intelligence officials should not be in the position of making policy, and if they are, the intelligence they provide becomes suspect because it could be seen as biased or slanted toward a particular policy option. susan: how much information and how makes it to the president? amy: it depends on the issue and president, and it depends on the day. there is the daily brief, a product president is supposed to read daily, whether presidents actually read it depends on the president. presidents also get information through oral briefings and increasingly today, through their phones, through all sorts of other social media accounts. there is a lot of competition for attention

declares our economic independence with much more self reliance and declares, strengthens our national security. it enhances our families financial future and ensures america can outcompete any nation on earth and it does so in a way that has fairness and is inclusive and diverse. the new law a once in a generation law creates 100,000 prevailing wage jobs and returned america to a world leader in the semi conductor realm and chips manufacturing. it has many house priorities. when you wear a mask you sort of get the sniffles. many house priorities including to improve a nation's best minds on an inclusive stem workforce that will unleash innovation across the country, every place in our country, every community in our country. we thank our remarkable cares for their vision, we're proud of 100 percent democratic vote and we once again commend our president and on wednesday, the president signed the pact act taking historic action to care for those who put their lives on the line for americans and now suffer from devastating diseases. this could apply to approximately 3 and a half million american

and former staff and board members were arrested according to national security police. they the allegedly conspired to publish inflammatory materials. lucky paula had taught bola yaga pickup, i'll put all her young, hates on the honey watch. music honked and full of done hate. they hung on see if i get on done. her home gone, gone, gone, gone. but more with my looking on what we had to call, the police also rated the home of deputy a simon editor, ronson chan. chan who is also chairperson of the hong kong journalist association, was taken in for questioning, but released without charge by old volga. rumors i love show them i will make how get found. i forgot to some go the whole call to get friends at long young. that's the gay. hi, george holiday, my. yeah, no, i thought come y'all said up to a joan body as you both for age. all comes out hours after the rate stand, news announced it would cease operations days later, independent new site citizen news set it to was shutting down chief editor, daisy lee blamed hong kong new environment. is an auto. oh my god bless it. i

cnn national security correspondent kylie atwood is working the story for us. kylie, fill us in on all the late breaking details of this plot against ambassador bolton and former secretary of state pompeo. >> wolf, as you said, really stunning details here. this iranian, a member of the irgc, started orchestrating this plot to try and pull off an assassination of the former national security adviser, john bolton, in october of 2021. and he was offering $300,000 to someone in the united states to try and carry out this plot. he was sending that person, an fbi informant, things such as screen shots of bolton's address, his office location address, and in those screen shots you can see they were taken from about 10,000 kilometers away. that's the distance from tehran to washington, d.c. where john bolton's office is located. he's also sending things such as images of cash. now, we have heard from the justice department there is now this criminal complaint out, and they are saying they believe that the motivation for this was retaliation for the u.s. air strike tha

investigation about obstruction and about mishandling of classified information, really from a national security equity perspective, the most important thing is to get those documents stored securely. so that's what that letter is about. >> understood. listen, so much to digest here. it was quite a day from this country. thank you all for walking us all through it. >>> coming up next, we'll have more on the political reaction tonight, especially from the former president's inner circle. later, the theft of the diary of president biden's daughter, ashley. the two who pleaded guilty to it and the back story of how it got into their hands. that and much more ahead on "a.c. 360." now available withot a prescription. astepro is the first and only 24-hour steroid free spray. while other allergy sprays take hours astepro starts working in 30 minutes. so you can... astepro and go. (♪ ♪) (racing sounds) (game chime) (silence) (♪ ♪) real luxury, real thrill. feel the rush of performance at the lexus golden opportunity sales event. (♪ ♪) to be clear, we have never been accused of being flashy, sexy or lit.

you served as trump's national security adviser.ype of classified information. are you shocked to see this photo and the incredibly high classification levels of these documents just sitting in trump's home and resort? >> well, i think it's clear from what we've seen already the picture adds to the importance of it, that there's a lot of sensitive information at mar-a-lago that's now in the ha hands of the justice department. but i also think it's important to try and take a deep breath before we assume too much about this. we'll find out in due course here. the director of national intelligence is conducting an evaluation of the information. and we'll see. at some point more particularly what it involves. but speculating, i think, just confuses things at this point. it's -- for example, i think if you look at media coverage, generally people assume that everything in all these documents is intelligence itself. and it's not. plenty of things can be classified that are not intelligence. it's also the case that a document characterize

sandy berger, who was the national security adviser in the clinton administration.s who was writing a book. they've all experienced what happens if you misuse classified material. and so this is not unprecedented. it has just never reached a president ever abusing his power and taking material like this that we're dealing with. >> john dean, carl bernstein, thank you. >>> just ahead, we're going to take you to the scene outside mar-a-lago. randi kaye and how the president's most ardent supporters reacted to the news of the fbi search, next.t. woman tc: my a1c stayed here, it needed to be here. doctor tc: ruby's a1c is down with rybelsus®. man tc: my a1c wasn't at goal, now i'm down with rybelsus®. son tc: mom's a1c is down with rybelsus®. song: a1c down with rybelsus® anncr vo: in a clinical study, once-daily rybelsus® significantly lowered a1c better than the leading branded pill. anncr vo: rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. anncr vo: don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syn

national security. in fact, sources now tell cnn how the justice department initially balked at launching a criminal investigation. top officials weighed the national security implications of the classified information being stored in unsecured sections of mar-a-lago, knowing that political blowback was likely. >> we have lost a lot of faith in the fairness of the judicial system, and it seems like they keep trying to find more and more things to go after trump on. it just seems like what they keep doing is breaking norms in their attempt to try to get him. >> as the letter was released, the former president lashed out on his social media page. accusing the biden administration of acting for purely political reasons, saying the white house stated strongly that they were not involved. and knew absolutely nothing about the political witch hunt going on with me and that they didn't know anything at all about the break-in of mar-a-lago. this was strongly reiterated again and again. wrong. this comes after tr

national security has long been an area of particular tension. attention.ional archive, since the presidential records act, has been very aggressive in going after former staff, never to reach a president before. but former staff or people, a very senior political people. sandy berger, the national security adviser in the clinton administration. general petraeus, who was writing a book. they have all experienced what happens if you misuse classified material. and so this was not unprecedented. it just never reached the president ever abusing his power and taking material like this that we are dealing with. >> john dean, carl bernstein. thank you. just ahead, we will take you to the scene outside mar-a-lago. randi kaye on how the former presidents most ardent supporters react to the news of the fbi search. that's next. i got tai last december. i've spent almost every minute with her since. when i first brought her home, she was eating little brown pieces in a bag and it was just what kind of came recommended. i just always thought, “dog food is dog food” i d

we also spoke to former national security adviser, john bolton, and he said, quote, it was a completeer to mike pence, called the notion lucas. another very senior intelligence official last, said it was ridiculous. and a very senior trump administration official, anderson, called it, quote, be s. he was not the only one who said that. >> wow, so are you sources telling you about how actually works compared to what happens in the trump white house? >> the source i spoke to familiar with the process in the trump way asset that, look, the president can say, i want something declassified. that is fine, but what happens to happen is that has to be memorialized. there has to be a record of it. it has to be run through the paces of various agencies. this or said to me, so, as a practical matter, the president has to be able to prove if he is asking things to be discussed a fight, then he did ask for things to be declassified. otherwise, it is like a tree falling in the forest with no one there to hear it. he says it is ridiculous. >> there would be a paper trail with other agencies, who are

about the national security threat that is donald trump? retired senior cia official douglas -- how hard it was to get classified documents away from trump when he was in office. plus, the gen z whisper joins us -- he says the key to pulling off a blue wave, not a red one, is young voters. and speaking of gen z, 25-year-old maxwell alejandro -- could make history this fall. i'll ask him what his plans are if he is elected to congress from a safe blue seed in florida. good evening, i'm mehdi has on. it has become increasingly clear if it wasn't before, that one of the 45 men in american history who have said in the oval office, who descended to the highest office in the land, donald j trump, posed a threat or national security while in office and continues to pose one now, even after office. just think about the enormity of that statement. think about the fact that trump is a former republican president. because in this country, for decades now, democratic presidents and presidential candidates have been often successfully portrayed by the g

from you from a national security stand point, as somebody in the business of dealing with our nationalurity, having those documents no longer in this storage room which we don't even think that was all that secure but now putting them in his office, having these things in his desk drawer, in his office in a public club like mar-a-lago, what kind of a security threat might that have faced? what kind of tradecraft might have been use federal you're adversaries to get at that information if it was that insecurely stored? >> well, joy, i think we know both trump and mar-a-lago were high priority targets when trump was in office and it became more of an intelligence target of foreign adversaries after he left office because there's probably a strong suspicion that there was information there that would have provided insight into national security so i'm sure the russians were looking at it after january 20th of 2021 and trying to determine how best to gain access to mar-a-lago. having somebody go in there, either as a member of a cleaning staff or a caterer or a guest to identify the locati

. >> right now, experts are assessing any damage to national security from the classified documents seized from the estate. new reaction from both sides. plus, what happens next. >>> and breaking overnight, a supermarket shooting in oregon. several people are dead. we have details just coming in. >>> britney spears opening up in a 22-minute audio clip posted on youtube. the pop star calling her 13-year conservatorship, which ended this year, abusive. >>> and history could be made just hours from now with the launch of nasa's giant new moon rocket artemis. our very own gio benitez is there live with all the details. hello, gio. it's monday, august 29th. >> announcer: from abc news, this is "world news now." >> so gio said he got about five hours of sleep. he's ready to go. he's got his green tea. >> welcome to the club. right? >> i'm super excited for this story. this is history. >> it really is. he is joining us live as an insomniac, a fellow insomniac. look, you saw there a little bit of his live shot there. it's, like, 2:30 in the morning. very dark, but his smile brightening up the even

this appears to be focused on this national security issue regarding these documents. which ironically, may be a stronger legal case than some of the other legal issues that are surrounding the january 6th committee. >> and what might he have on the president of france? >> that's an excellent question. that maybe is better asked to somebody who has seen the classified material regarding that, but i will just say, it will be very difficult for him to go into my area of expertise, very difficult for him to explain to a jury why he needs to have the folders on the president of france and why he needs to have potential nuclear information, top secret information, when he's no longer president. i think that is very difficult to explain >> i think president macron probably has the same question we'll see what we can learn. renato mariotti, have a great weekend. thank you. >>> historical perspective now from nbc news presidential historian michael beschloss. he was among the historians who reportedly met with president biden last week to discuss the state of democracy michael

is that the nation's most closely guarded national security secrets, nuclear weapons programs would be among those types of documents. again, this is with the washington post is reporting. it sort of falls in line with what we know has already been found. highly classified documents that should never had left the white house. should never have left washington and was sent down to the former presidents beach house, and that is the reason why they had this month long interaction, trying to retrieve documents, sending a subpoena back in june, laura, retrieving some of those documents, and why you saw this escalation, which ended up happening on monday with this search. >> gloria, it's very difficult for anyone. just look at this and say, you know, this is sort of like a pen. when would not know if they were classified documents. only one would know -- i might occasionally find a five dollar bill in my jeans pocket. i did not know it was there, but i'm probably going to know that there is classified documents if it is a nuclear nature. if that's true, gloria, team trump is saying that they

earlier today sheila jackson lee told msnbc have the classified documents in question could be a national securityisk. >> when you think of the names of the sources of individuals who were securing important information through human deeds, human activities, if that was exposed, not only with these individuals be in jeopardy, where they snow in posted in countries around the world, but their families may be in jeopardy. >> when we just a moment we're going to talk to a panel of reporters and experts. but first, nbc's monica alba has a closer look at what was revealed in the redacted copy of the affidavit. the department of justice offering new insight into why the fbi seized highly classified documents from mar-a-lago on august 9th, revealing in a heavily redacted copy of the affidavit, then an earlier review of material the former president took from the white house, contained information that could cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security. 15 boxes were returned by mr. trump to the national archives in january. 14 of them containing classified information. 184 documents had clas

this is the highest metal that a president can give for national security. hey guys, and i have a long list of here that some very thorough speechwriter wrote out. about bob gates is accomplishments his record his service to his country, but i expect people here know this better than most but you ought to know how much i trust him admire him and respect. i will ask you. so this is the national security medal and if there's ever been one that's been well deserved or well-earned. it's the one i present now with great pride to bob gates director of central intelligence. got it. we're out of here. thank you all very much. thanks a lot. and welcome to the nixon library. my name is jim byron. i'm the president and ceo of the richard nixon foundation. hello to all of you and welcome. this is an important day because today we celebrate 37 words that changed everything. and before i do that it is my pleasure to introduce the honor guard from the yorba linda girl scouts and ask everyone to stand as they present the colors. and we sing our national anthem.

it's in that matter of national security. it doesn't matter what the documents say are state, really, the bottom line is classified documents and sensitive information has a home. classified facilities, bottom line. the home is not in mar-a-lago, florida, where it is outside of the purview of where these documents should be stored. there's a lot of narratives out there and maybe these documents were declassified before, we if there is the authority to do that before he left office. if they were declassified there would be a long trail and process that led to the declassification of those documents. someone mentioned he might have thought that they were declassified. maybe he didn't utter that phrase. is that a defense? how much water does that carry? if he says yeah but i thought that they were. in my mind that they were. >> it doesn't work that way. there's a lot of conversations that donald trump has in his mind all the time. it was a lot of conversations he has out in the open, to be, honestly you should be having. those i

>> it's hard for me to understand a legitimate national security reason why the former president should have documents he appears to have been holding at mar-a-lago it poses a grave danger to the national security of america to reveal those documents. that's why they're classified at that level, so it's very serious. >> maura joins us from the white house. former president trump is insisting everything was declassified saying all the fbi had to do was ask. does that make a difference >> reporter: jose, all three of the statutes the fbi is investigating does not require the material in question be classified, and legal experts say that argument probably wouldn't hold up in court. even if it does the documents are still government property and it may have been illegal to remove them jose >> maura barrett at the white house, thank you. >>> to now to that breaking news on that horrifying attack on salman rushdie today that suspect was charged. we have possible motive on what we now know on rushdie's condition. >> reporter: salman rushdie remains in the hospital tonight following the friday