Former US ambassador: 'No comparison' between Trump's top secret docs and Hillary's emails

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Matt Laslo
August 24, 2022

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The raid on Mar-a-Lago was unprecedented – but that’s because it was unprecedented for former President Trump to leave the White House with stacks of classified and top-secret materials, according to former US ambassador Don Beyer. Now a congressman, Beyer remembers when he held a top-secret clearance, which is why he’s astounded sensitive government secrets were handled so cavalierly by Trump.

In the wake of this latest Trump scandal, Democrats now have a new opportunity to challenge the GOP’s self-anointed title of the “law and order” party, according to Beyer who is disgusted with all the anti-FBI rhetoric coming from Republicans these days.

“Completely reprehensible,” Beyer, a Virginia Democrat, told Raw Story in a phone interview this week. “They've always had an advantage for a long time over Democrats in terms of law enforcement, but they’re just giving it all away.”

News that Trump took more than 700 pages of classified documents with him after he lost the White House was shocking to many. But the former ambassador says he’s still mystified – if also a tad terrified – that among all those classified documents were top secret or sensitive compartmented information, which he wanted to deal with as little as possible while he served as a European ambassador under President Obama.

“I must confess, when they would bring me those top secret documents – I had the top secret clearance, the SCI, sensitive compartmented information – I would read them standing up, and then hand them right back to the CIA agents,” Beyer recounted. “I did not want them on my desk. I certainly, certainly wouldn't think of taking them home. There's no way to get in trouble faster than to mishandle a classified document.”

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