'So appalled': What witnesses told special counsel about Trump's handling of classified info while still president

In the summer of 2019, only hours after an Iranian rocket accidentally exploded at one of Iran's own launch sites, senior U.S.officials met with then-president Donald Trump and shared a sharply detailed, highly classified image of the blast's catastrophic aftermath.The image was captured by a U.S.

satellite whose true capabilities were a tightly guarded secret.But Trump wanted to share it with the world -- he thought it was especially "sexy" because it was marked classified, one of his former advisers later recalled to special counsel Jack Smith's investigators, according to sources familiar with the former adviser's statements.Worried that the image becoming public could hurt national security efforts, intelligence officials urged Trump to hold off until more knowledgeable experts were able to weigh in, the sources said.

But less than an hour later, while at least one of those intelligence officials was in another building scrambling to get more information, Trump posted the image to Twitter.MORE: Judge denies Trump's bid to have classified documents case tossed based on Presidential Records Act"It was so upsetting, and people were really angry," one of Trump's former advisers told investigators, sources said.The public pushback to Trump's post was immediate: Intelligence experts and even international media questioned whether U.S.interests had just been endangered by what Trump did.

When pressed about it at the White House, Trump insisted he hadn't released classified information because he had an "absolute right to do" it.While much of Smith's sprawling classified documents investigation has focused on how Trump handled classified materials after leaving the White House, a wide array of former aides and advisers -- including personal valets, press assistants, senior national security officials, and even Trump's briefers from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence -- have provided Smith with firsthand accounts about how Trump allegedly handled and ...