'No one' gets to keep classified information, says Mike Pompeo, an apparent criticism of Trump in the wake of the Mar-a-Lago raid
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed the FBI's Mar-a-Lago raid.
He said that no one has a right to possess classified material outside a secure setting.
Yet he also criticised the FBI probe, echoing Trump's attacks on the agency.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed the FBI's raid on Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, appearing to criticize the former president's handling of classified information after leaving office.
In a video of Pompeo's speech at a private event by the Israel Heritage foundation, he discussed the FBI's August 8 raid on Trump's estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Executing a search warrant, agents retrieved stashes of classified information they believe Trump wrongly kept hold of after leaving office.
"No one gets to keep classified information outside of a place classified information should be. That is certainly true. Secretary of state – former secretary of state doesn't get to keep it, no one does," said Pompeo at the event on Sunday.
But, despite conceding the serious problems with Trump's handling of the material, he went on to portray the DOJ investigation as politicized.
"For the Department of Justice to behave the way they did by raiding the home of a former president is absolutely outrageous," said Pompeo.
"And it is politicizing a Department of Justice that I fear is headed in a way that is not consistent with the understandings that we all have of the rule of law here in the United States."
Pompeo is not the only former Trump administration official to tread a precarious path defending Trump in the wake of the raid, while also acknowledging the problems with his cavalier handling of secret information.
In a recent Fox News interview, former Attorney General Bill Barr dismissed the defenses Trump made after the raid, but at the same time said the FBI should not be pursuing an investigation into the former president.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case, claiming he broadly declassified the documents before leaving office. Neither he nor his legal team has offered any proof this was the case.
In a photo released by the DOJ, documents with the highest levels of classification were shown in an office in Mar-a-Lago, seemingly unsecured alongside Trump's personal effects.
Pompeo was a Trump loyalist during his time in office, serving as CIA director before moving to the State Department. He is rumored to be positioning himself for a presidential bid in 2024.
Trump is currently engaged in a protracted legal battle over the FBI's access to the documents the agency seized.
A third party official, known as a special master, is reviewing the material to establish if any of it should be handed back to Trump under executive privilege rules.
The DOJ has appealed a ruling that denied them access to classified material they seized until the special master is done, arguing that the delay could harm US national security.
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