Burn Bags and Tracking Numbers: How the White House Handles Classified Files

WASHINGTON — Last summer, a few hours after the The FBI will reveal why it raided former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, looking for classified documents.President Joe Biden was asked by a reporter if it was appropriate in any context to take home top secret material.

Almost drowned out by the rumble of the Marine One helicopter behind him, Biden made something of a confession.

“Today I’m taking home today’s PDB,” he said, referring to the President’s Daily Brief, the highly classified intelligence digest that every morning the nation’s leading spies and analysts prepare for the occupant of the Oval Office.

Before boarding the helicopter, Biden explained that his Delaware home had a “closed space that was completely safe.” She also noted that the PDB was “under lock and key. I am accompanied by one person – a military man. I read it, close it and give it to the soldier”.

The president’s response – that taking the documents home was not improper, “according to the circumstances” – it was a sign of how often Biden handles classified materials and sensitive documents at his Delaware homealso because he spends there almost every weekend.

However, it was also an indication of the little-known process by which these documents are theoretically created, distributed, secured, and ultimately declared within the White House, where nearly everyone has some form of national security clearance.

Current and former officials who participated in that process, with both Democratic and Republican presidents, described an elaborate National Security Council (NSC) tracking system for highly sensitive documents like the PDB, but more informal dissemination for classified documents used daily by officials ranging from the president to the lowest-ranking national security advisers.

Biden’s handling of confidential documents is under scrutiny and the subject of a Justice Department investigation. led by a special adviser, just like Trump. White House officials insist that the documents they discovered at Biden’s Delaware home were accidentally left there without the president’s knowledge. Furthermore, they ensure that they have fully cooperated with the investigators, while Trump has opposed it, even after being subpoenaed.

Last week, former Vice President Mike Pence also acknowledged that his aides had discovered a handful of classified documents in his Indiana home. The National Archives and Records Administration has sent a letter to other presidents and vice presidents asking them to examine their collections as well.

However, in all confessions and public investigations, the answer to one question has been evaded: How can sensitive documents end up in the wrong place?

The NSC “Intelligence Workshop”.

The most classified and sensitive material, such as the morning intelligence briefing for the president, is often created outside the White House and within the nation’s intelligence agencies: the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security.

When this material is ready for the president, vice president, or other senior White House official to receive, it is typically sent via the government’s confidential e-mail system to an office within the NSC called “Intelligence laboratory”.

That office is located in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House and is staffed by a handful of former intelligence officials and others with experience protecting national secrets. Using special printers connected to the confidential email system, the intelligence shop prints the documents and puts them together in a folder, according to people familiar with the process.

As soon as the folder is ready, the person who is to report to the “director” – nickname of the president or vice president – goes to the intelligence shop to pick it up. The clerk puts the classified material into a lockable, zippered briefcase-like bag.

Intelligence lab officials record the delivery: a description of the material, who picked it up, what time it left and the name of the person who received the documents.

After the briefing, the assistant is expected to return the file to the closed bag and return it to the intelligence shop, where its return will be recorded and, in most cases, the documents are placed in “burn bags” and are then destroyed, according to several people familiar with the process.

However, in some cases, the director decides to keep the documents for days or even weeks. In such cases, intelligence laboratory officials should keep track of pending documents and liaise with the person who collected the material so that it can eventually be returned and disposed of.

This was said by two people who worked in previous governments, who asked not to be named about the classified material intelligence shop officials were often ruthless in ensuring that the most confidential documents were returned. Some of these documents are even numbered, to make it easier to trace classified information about a particular person.

confusing meeting notes

The rules governing the handling of classified documents have been in effect in the White House for decades.according to those who know them, although the rigor with which they are followed depends on each president and his assistants.

Many White House officials — and nearly all NSC members — have authorization to handle classified material, and most have access to the government’s classified computer network with links to intelligence agencies and a printer, often used to share information. with other people during meetings.

Classified documents are routinely distributed before a meeting in the Crisis Room or one of the many secure offices in the West Wing or Eisenhower Building. During the assembly, all written notes on classified documents also become classified and, in many cases, must be preserved and protected.

However, according to officials, most of the information discussed and exchanged daily in those meetings is not handled by the intelligence lab. Documents are not numbered or tracked. And while most should end up in big bags to be shredded, not all of it ends there.

Several people who attended those meetings said so Officials often bring these documents to their offices, facilitating their confusion with unclassified information.

“In my experience, this material was very likely to get mixed up with other things,” said Neil Eggleston, who served as a White House adviser under President Barack Obama and recalled that people used to handle classified material, especially during meetings with the president. “Everyone present should have read them before the meeting began.”

However, according to Eggleston, most of the time no one would walk in after the meeting and ask: “Where was that document?”

The White House at the weekend

Most presidents usually travel on weekends.

Trump spent many Saturdays and Sundays at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, or home in Bedminster, New Jersey. Former President George W. Bush spent many weeks on his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Ronald Reagan used to do business at his home in Southern California.

However, few have done it as regularly as Biden.

For the better part of the last fifty years — first as a senator, then as a vice president, and now as president — Biden has left Washington for Wilmington, Delaware most Fridays, only to return to the nation’s capital on Sunday or Monday. Whenever he travels to Wilmington, Biden is accompanied by military and national security aides, in case he needs to attend briefings in person.

In an interview with CBS News in September, Biden reacted to the discovery of classified information in Trump’s house and the fact that the former president has refused for a year to return information which, according to some reports, contained very sensitive nuclear secrets. Biden commented that his predecessor’s actions made him wonder “how can someone be so irresponsible”.

However, just a few months later, Biden’s actions are also being investigated. And while his lawyers have promised to be far more cooperative than those representing Trump, they have thus far offered little information about the documents themselves and how they got there.

“We have sought to balance the importance of public transparency, where appropriate, with established standards and restrictions necessary to protect the integrity of the investigation,” said Bob Bauer, the president’s personal attorney, the day after the The FBI discovered other classified documents at Biden’s home in Wilmingtonafter searching for nearly thirteen hours.

Biden has not commented on the matter since that day.

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