Here’s What Trump’s ‘Nuclear Documents’ Could Be

The Washington Post broke the news that FBI agents were looking for nuclear documents when they searched the Mar-a-Lago residence of the former President. The nation's nuclear systems and plans are some of the most closely guarded secrets.

Trump called the report a hoax. What could a vague phrase like "nuclear documents" mean, and what could we learn about such a category?

Nuclear weapon science and design, other countries' nuclear plans, the nuclear systems and command of allied nations and adversaries are some of the files that the US intelligence and defense communities have.

There are some unique classification quirks in each category. A simple Top Secret clearance isn't enough to access the files, so all of them exist at the above top secret level.

During the Cold War, security classification procedures were codified into three levels of classification, each carrying with it increased levels of control, storage, and more intensive background checks.

In the US, Top Secret is used to indicate national security information or material which requires the highest degree of protection. There is almost anything interesting that the US intelligence or military has to offer on a day-to-day basis. Many US intelligence and military personnel will joke that reading the daily newspaper is more important than reading confidential information.

Almost all sensitive positions in the US government, including FBI agents, military personnel, and most intelligence officers and analysts, come with a Top Secret clearance. According to research conducted by The Washington Post in the wake of 9/11, nearly a million Americans have top secret clearances.

We knew since February that Donald Trump had taken a lot of documents from the White House. There are two new revelations this week, both of which suggest that the stuff hidden in Mar-a-Lago was more sensitive.

Most of the really interesting secrets within the US government are not just Top Secret, but come with additional levels of security clearance and special access that restrict them even more tightly.