Burn bags and tracking numbers: How the White House handles classified files

WASHINGTON — Last summer, just hours after

, a reporter asked President Joe Biden whether in any context it was appropriate to take Top secret material house.

Nearly drowned out by the roar of the Marine One helicopter behind him, Biden made a confession of sorts.

“Today I take home today's PDB,” he said, referring to the President's Daily Brief, the highly classified summary of intelligence

that the nation's top spies and analysts prepare each morning for the occupant of the Oval Office.

President Joe Biden has said that taking top-secret material home might be okay, "depending on the circumstances" (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Before boarding the helicopter, Biden explained that his Delaware home had "a confined space that is completely secure."

He also noted that the PDB was “on lockdown.

I am accompanied by a person: a military man.

I read it, I close it again and I give it to the soldier”.

The president's response — that taking documents home was not improper, "under the circumstances" —

, in part because he spends nearly every week there. weekends.

However, it was also an indication of the little-known process by which these documents are theoretically created, distributed, protected, and ultimately declared inside the White House, where almost everyone has some form of clearance. of national security.

Current and former officials who have been part of that process, both with Democratic and Republican presidents, described an elaborate National Security Council (NSC) tracking system for highly sensitive documents like the PDB, but a diffusion more informal for classified documents used daily by officials ranging from the president to the lowest-ranking national security advisers.

Biden's handling of classified documents is under scrutiny and the subject of a Justice Department investigation

headed by a special counsel, just like Trump.

White House officials insist that the documents they discovered at Biden's home in Delaware were accidentally left there without the president's knowledge.

In addition, they assure that they have fully cooperated with the investigators, while Trump opposed them, even after being subpoenaed.

Last week, former Vice President Mike Pence also acknowledged that his aides had discovered a handful of classified documents at his Indiana home.

The National Archives and Records Administration sent a letter to other presidents and vice presidents asking them to also examine their collections.

However, in all the confessions and public investigations, the answer to one question has been eluded:

The NSC 'Intelligence Workshop'

The most classified and sensitive material, like the morning intelligence briefing for the president, is often created outside the White House and inside the nation's spy agencies: the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National security.

When this material is ready for the President, Vice President, or other senior White House official to receive, it is typically sent via the government's classified email system to an office within the NSC called

That office is in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next door to the White House, and is run by a handful of former intelligence officials and others with experience protecting national secrets.

Using special printers connected to the classified email system, the intelligence shop prints the documents and puts them together in a folder, according to people familiar with the process.

As soon as the folder is ready, the person who is going to report to the “director” —nickname for the president or vice president— goes to the intelligence workshop to pick it up.

The attendant places the classified material in a briefcase-like bag with a zipper and padlock.

The intelligence workshop officials record the delivery

: a description of the material, who picked it up, what time it left, and the name of the person who received the documents.

After the briefing is over, the assistant is supposed to put the folder in the closed bag and take it back to the intelligence workshop, where its return will be recorded and, in most cases, the documents are placed in “ bags to burn” and are then destroyed, according to several people familiar with the process.

However, in some cases, the director decides to keep the documents for days or even weeks.

In such cases, intelligence workshop officials should keep track of pending documents and keep in touch with the person who collected the material so that it can eventually be returned and disposed of.

Two people who worked in previous governments, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss the classified material, said

.

Some of those documents are even numbered, to make it easier to trace classified information back to a particular person.

confused meeting notes

Rules governing the handling of classified documents have been in place for decades at the White House

, according to people familiar with them, though how strictly they are followed is up to each president and their aides.

Many White House officials—and nearly all NSC members—have clearance to handle classified material, and most have access to the government's classified computer network with connections to intelligence agencies and a printer, often used for sharing information with other people in meetings.

Classified documents are routinely distributed prior to a meeting in the Crisis Room or in one of the many secure offices in the West Wing or in the Eisenhower Building.

During the meeting, all the notes written on the classified documents also become classified and, in many cases, must be kept and protected.

However, most of the information that is discussed and exchanged on a daily basis in those meetings is not managed by the intelligence workshop, according to officials.

Documents are not numbered or tracked.

And while most of it is supposed to go into large bags to be shredded, not all end up there.

Several people who have participated in those meetings said

“In my experience, it was very likely that this material would just get mixed up with other things,” said Neil Eggleston, who worked as a White House adviser under President Barack Obama and recalled that people used to handle classified material, especially during meetings with the president.

“Everyone present was supposed to have read them before the meeting started.”

However, according to Eggleston, more often than not, no one would come in after the meeting and ask,

The White House of the weekend

Most of the presidents usually travel on weekends.

Trump spent many Saturdays and Sundays at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, estate or at his home in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Former President George W. Bush spent many weeks at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Ronald Reagan used to do business at his home in Southern California.

Yet

President Joe Biden exits Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

(Doug Mills/The New York Times)

For most of the past five decades — first as a senator, then as vice president, and now as president — Biden has left Washington for Wilmington, Delaware on most Fridays, only to return to the nation's capital on Sunday. or Monday.

Whenever he goes to Wilmington, Biden is accompanied by military and national security aides, in case it is necessary for him to attend briefings in person.

In an interview with CBS News in September,

and the fact that the former president refused for a year to return information.

which, according to some reports, contained very sensitive nuclear secrets.

Biden said the actions of his predecessor made him wonder

. "

However, just a few months later, Biden's actions are also being investigated.

And while his lawyers have vowed to be far more cooperative than those representing Trump, they have so far offered little information about the documents themselves and how they got there.

“We have tried to balance the importance of public transparency where appropriate with established standards and necessary restrictions to protect the integrity of the investigation,” Bob Bauer, the president's personal attorney, said the day after the

, after searching for almost thirteen hours.

Biden has not commented on the issue since that day.

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