'Absolutely serious': Legal experts explain why nuclear secrets allegations are so damning for Trump

While former President Donald Trump faces a federal prosecution for allegedly mishandling classified government documents by storing them at Mar-a-Lago, ABC News is reporting that he allegedly shared nuclear submarine secrets with an Australian billionaire who visited Mar-a-Lago in 2021.

CNN's Kate Bolduan, during an October 6 broadcast, discussed these allegations with former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and former Deputy U.S. Attorney General Tom Dupree.

Bolduan asked McCabe how bad the allegations are and whether it was a matter of "this is serious" or "just another round of Donald Trump not respecting protocol" — and McCabe responded, "Well, I think, both of those can be true. First, it is absolutely serious. This is the most, arguably the most serious, information our government holds. And as evidence of that, I would point out that the vast majority of classified information is classified by executive order. That is, the president decides what is classified; he can then decide what is not classified — but not with nuclear defense information."

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McCabe continued, "That is classified by statute. Even the president can't declassify it. It's that serious. However, despite the seriousness of it, we have yet another example of Donald Trump treating our nation's most important secrets with disregard, irresponsibly in a way that could arguably be criminal — although he's not charged with this episode yet."

Bolduan asked Dupree why, in his view, the nuclear submarine allegations were not part of special counsel Jack Smith's Mar-a-Lago documents indictment.

Dupree replied, "One possibility is that Jack Smith views this alleged violation as perhaps less serious than the other Mar-a-Lago classified document-related violations. Another possibility is that he doesn't want to delay things beyond the extent to which they have already been delayed in prosecuting the Mar-a-Lago case."

READ MORE:Cannon grants Trump delay in Espionage Act case amid report he allegedly shared nuclear secrets at Mar-a-Lago

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