Why Should Classified Information Be Protected?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is classified information. No one wants the “enemy” to know their battle plans or anything else that affects their fighting capability. So, classified information was born. There are various levels of security for documents and other materials. Sixty years ago, I held a security clearance of “SECRET.” I know how classified documents are supposed to be managed!

Americans want their leaders to safeguard classified information because they understand that secrets are necessary to protect our nation. Recently Americans learned that a federal grand jury indicted former Trump national security adviser John Bolton “on charges related to the mishandling of classified information.” The charges claim that Bolton “shared extremely sensitive documents dealing with national security matters through an AOL email account that he operated personally following his appointment in the first Trump administration.” Jacob Adams reported the following information.

The 26-page indictment accuses Bolton of a total of 18 counts of unlawfully retaining national defense information and unlawfully transmitting national defense information. Bolton, 76, could face decades in prison if convicted of just some of the charges.

The indictment contends that Bolton “abused his position as national security adviser by sharing with family members more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities.”

Bolton, like other indicted individuals, claim that President Donald Trump has weaponized the Justice Department against his enemies even if they have to “distort the facts.” However, there are reasons why this man should be investigated, charged, and convicted if guilty.

Bolton became an ardent critic of President Donald Trump after he was fired in September 2019 as the president’s national security adviser during his first term. He earned a reported $2 million advance for his political memoir discussing his time in the Trump White House. The Justice Department argued before a federal judge that the book contained sensitive information that could hurt national security.

Bolton should have known better. Anyone who rose through the levels of government service to become a national security advisor should have known the proper protocols for handling classified materials. There is no excuse for Bolton’s putting classified materials into unclassified emails and sending them over unsecure means.