camera at that and cnn camera at that and cnn tonight . captions by vitac www.vitac.com white house officials are worried, cnn has learned, about the trove of classified and top secret materials found in former president donald trump s house. the biden white house has been virtually silent publicly on the danger that those sensitive documents pose. but a senior administration official says that privately, officials are expressing deep concern about the material trump was trying to hang onto. according to a source, u.s. intelligence officials are also worried about whether any of it puts their sources and methods at risk. we still do not know who had access to the classified materials in the basement of mar-a-lago. even trump s own lawyer cannot answer that question. and only one or two people had access to that room to your knowledge? that s my understanding. i mean, i would have to check with, you know, the maintenance of that area. but my understanding is very s
states because of a little known exception the government has been making. let s go outfront. good evening, everyone. i m poppy harlow in for erin burnett. outfront tonight, team trump s response. trump s legal team up against the clock to respond to that bombshell 54-page filing by the justice department. we should be getting that response at any moment now. it is due in less than an hour and the filing, which is expected to be no more than ten pages or less, could give us the first look at the strategy from trump s new legal counsel. that is florida s former solicitor general. for the first time, we re getting crucial insight into trump s defense against damning new evidence from the doj, which, according to the agency s new filing, investigators have evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed in the storage room and efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government s investigation. the doj detailing in this filing the depth and the breadth
ga and good evening, i m erin burnett. trump investigated for violating the espionage act. yes, that is just one of the crimes former president trump is under investigation for by the department of justice tonight. obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records are also on the list. now just to be clear, when you hear the word espionage, you might say, wait, espionage? here s what it specifically relates to. i ll quote for you. information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the united states or to the advantage of any foreign nation. and as the warrant, the unsealed warrant now states, the property to be seized includes, and just reading here and you can see on your screen as well, information including communications in any form regarding the retrieval, storage or transmission of national defense information or classified material. and that is why the fbi searched mar-a-lago on monday. and we now also know what the fbi took
okay. did the maintenance staff have access to that room? did trump s family have access? did rudy giuliani? trump s lawyer also tried to claim that getting into mar-a-lago is tough. so, it s secure in and of itself. just getting onto the compound is hard. but we have seen dignitaries and wedding parties that have been there. we ve also seen friends of donald trump s who eat dinner there every week. how about the chinese national who was convicted of trespassing there three years ago? prosecutors suggested she could have been trying to spy on the u.s. and say she had a flash drive containing malware in her possession at the time, as well as a signal detector and four cell phones. somehow, she was able to bring all of that into the private club. there was also another chinese national accused of trespassing at mar-a-lago later that year. taking classified documents from the white house is a crime. it may be many crimes, as spelled out in the application for the search warrant.
about a door in that basement, in that walkout basement there. the main building. so in this context of what sarah is talking about, that jamie raskin just described it as porous. there s a club area. this is a place a lot of people come in and out. there have been concerns about security at mar-a-lago for years. everybody watching may remember the moment in 2017 when trump was seen out in the open on a patio when news broke that north korea had launched a missile in the direction of japan. he was hosting the japanese prime minister, then prime minister shinzo abe for dinner. trump s aides were sitting there shining flashlights on the documents as guests looked on. that was all happening sort inform plain sight. and then there were attempted spy, who knows what we don t know, but we do know in 2019, a chinese businesswoman was arrested after trespassing onto the property. she had a flash drive containing malware and electronic devices, including a signal detector. these are just some