Esper Slams Trump's 'Irresponsible Action' on Docs

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper was harshly critical of Donald Trump, telling CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that the former president should not be trusted again with U.S. secrets if the federal indictment for his handling of classified information turns out to be true.

Esper, who served in the Trump administration, said, "The revelations are very troubling, disturbing."

When asked if Trump should be trusted again with the nation's secrets, Esper said, "Based on his actions, again, if proven true under the indictment by the special counsel, no. I mean, it's just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation's security at risk. You cannot have these documents floating around.”

The former defense secretary said, "If the allegations are true that it contained information about our nation's security, about our vulnerabilities, about other items, it could be quite harmful to the nation. And, look, no one is above the law. And so I think this process needs to play out and people held to account, the president held to account."

Esper added, "Imagine if a foreign agent, another country were to discover documents that outline America's vulnerabilities or the weaknesses of the United States military. Think about how that could be exploited, how that could be used against us in a conflict, how an enemy could develop countermeasures, things like that. Or in the case of the most significant piece that was raised in the allegation about U.S. plans to attack Iran, think about how that affects our readiness, our ability to prosecute an attack."

Esper compared Trump's legal case to that of Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who was indicted Thursday for posting secret and sensitive military documents on social media. 

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