Don’t step on national secrets

It’s no secret the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spends a couple billion dollars a year to keep America safe from our enemies. The CIA has 17,000 employees working for it, some openly in Washington, but some dangerously undercover in hostile countries.

Most of us understand that “secret” means “secret” and don’t consider a top-secret document an old high school typing test. Clearly, at least one ex-president can’t distinguish. It is ironic that clearance he would likely have been denied as a clerk or typist, was his as president, as it must be. He has the “need to know”; the ultimate criterion applied to everyone.

Here’s a description of what keeps someone from being cleared: “Top secret clearance holders must have no significant financial concerns. If the background check reveals a considerable amount of debt, missed payments, tax evasion, collection judgments, check fraud, foreclosures, embezzlement or bankruptcies …”

Donald Trump would not have been qualified for Top Secret clearance if he had not been president. He may not have been guilty of all disqualifying conditions, but a few, maybe one, will do.

When I worked in the federal government in the 1960s, I had a security clearance- Confidential — which is the lowest level, behind Secret and Top Secret. My boss, as Vice President, had access to the highest, essentially the same as the president. Every day, a CIA agent briefed him. He had to know the secrets for a simple reason: he could be president in a moment and would have no time for learning. But, I never saw a secret document on the Vice President’s desk or at his home.

I chose not to know anything that was classified, saying I would rather look ignorant than blurt out something I shouldn’t, but might, under reporters pressing me as the press secretary. My loose lips were not likely to sink ships, but they could somehow damage our national interests.

I was a flunky but knew what the rules were. For Donald Trump to take 50 boxes filled with 11,000 documents, some Top Secret, is beyond belief. No president, Republican or Democrat, has been guilty of such irresponsible behavior. Those documents dumped at Mar-a-Lago aren’t his, but ours and Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret. Yet Trump won’t accept reality.

He and his lawyers dissemble, delay, and behave as if the rule of law doesn’t apply. They first claimed all documents had been returned to the National Archives. They obviously haven’t. Trump lawyers were given time by a Trump appointed judge to delay turning over the files, a decision that the Department of Justice says is doing “irreparable harm.” An appeals court panel set aside her ruling this past week.

I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think you have to be one to know that Donald Trump has broken the law. Yet, Politico reports “Trump warns of problems like ‘we have never seen’ if he is indicted. He claims possible indictment ‘won’t stop me from running for President again.”

Only Republicans can stop him, indicted or not. That is no secret, and our senators must know it and speak up now.

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary.