Trump-era mystery: Crucial binder on Russia's election interference still missing

As stated by CNN, this missing binder encompassed a comprehensive collection of documents from the investigation into Russian interference in the American 2016 elections. It also included an assessment from the intelligence community indicating that Russia had attempted to assist Donald Trump's victory.

Trump had been persistently pushing for the declassification of these documents, asserting that they would reveal the investigation into his alleged ties with Russia as a "hoax." A portion of the documents was eventually declassified, although this excluded susceptible documents containing "raw" intelligence data from Russia, expected to include information regarding sources and intelligence-gathering methods.

As described by CNN, these documents were so sensitive they were stored within a "safe inside a safe" (a special locker containing paperwork inside a CIA vault). Trump was urged against declassifying the most delicate part of these datasheets by individuals including then CIA director Gina Haspel, his attorney general Bill Barr, and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe.

In his presidency's final moments, Donald Trump arranged for these documents to be brought to the White House. They were subsequently handed over to the White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows. He hastily prepared the documents for publication, attempting to redact sensitive data within the closing hours of the Trump presidency - with the aim of delivering them to the journalist and friend, John Solomon.

Ultimately, the documents' full version was not released, and the binder - containing sensitive information - went missing. According to Meadows' assistant Cassidy Hutchinson, on the eve of Trump's final day in office, her boss took the binder with him into a limousine. When she last checked his safe before leaving the White House, the documents were already gone. Meadows' attorney, George Terwiliger, categorically denies that his client mishandled the undisclosed documents.

The documents were not among the confidential files that Trump took to his Florida residence, which the FBI discovered during a home search.

CNN reports that in 2022, representatives of the intelligence service informed Senate Intelligence Committee members that the folder containing the sensitive data had gone missing. This binder has not been recovered since.

According to CNN, the binder's disappearance has raised concerns among intelligence officials that some of the United States' and their allies' most closely guarded national security secrets could be publicly disclosed.