WASHINGTON — A 32-page redacted version of the affidavit explaining the justification for an FBI search of former President Donald Trump's Florida estate revealed that 14 out of the 15 boxes recovered had classification markings.
The affidavit, which is heavily redacted, offered insight into the FBI's decision to search Trump's Palm Beach home. Among those documents retrieved, 184 of them bared an array of classification markings.
There were 67 documents marked as "Confidential," 92 documents marked as "Secret" and 25 documents marked as "Top Secret," according to the document.
Agents who inspected the boxes found markings related to information provided by confidential human sources as well as information related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Classified documents such as the ones found at Mar-a-Lago are typically kept secure with failsafes meant to prevent unauthorized people from accessing them, or authorized readers from taking any copies of the documents away from their storage location.
The classified documents recovered from Trump's Florida estate were intermingled with miscellaneous newspapers, magazines, photos and personal correspondence, according to the affidavit.
What is the difference in classifications?
The United States government has three levels of classification for its national security information under Executive Order 13526. The executive order, set in place in 1982 by former President Ronald Reagan, created a uniform system of classifying, declassifying and safeguarding national security information.
Due to the threat posed by unauthorized disclosure of any classified records, the information must be properly safeguarded.
"Classified information with any designation can only be shared with persons determined by an appropriate United States Government official to be eligible for access, and who possess a 'need to know,'" the affidavit says.
Confidential
The "Confidential" classification is applied to information that could be expected to cause some kind of damage to national security if disclosed to the public or another nation. This is the lowest level of the three classifications.
Secret
The "Secret" classification is applied to records that could be expected to cause serious damage to national security if disclosed. Most classified records are kept at this level of classification.
Secret information could be, for example, documents that would disrupt foreign relations significantly, impair a program or policy related to national security, or documents that could compromise a significant military plan or intelligence operation.
Top Secret:
The highest level of the three is "Top Secret" which applies to information that could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if released.
If Top Secret documents are made public, it could lead to armed hostility against the U.S. or its allies. Other Top Secret documents could compromise vital national defense plans or reveal sensitive intelligence operations.