The other shoe about to drop in this Trump-Russia classified binder story

On Friday CNN reported that the U.S. intel community spent years attempting to track down a binder of classified intel about Russia. The binder had been requested by Donald Trump during his final days in office, was last seen in the hands of Mark Meadows, and then went “missing.” Here’s the thing.

When something like this leaks, it’s not because the information got picked up off someone’s desk by the wind and randomly landed on a reporter’s desk. It’s never happenstance. Sometimes a story leaks to the media through carelessness or sloppiness. But in this instance we’re talking about a highly secretive hunt for a highly classified document. The people who would have been in on this hunt would all be high ranking, highly trusted, very discreet personnel – not the kind of people who would be prone to accidentally letting the media in on their clandestine search.

So you have to think that this leak to the media is an intentional and strategic one. The question is, why? And of course the followup question is, why now? Why not a month or a year ago? Why not a month from now? What just changed? Did they finally find the binder, and this leak is their way of laying the groundwork for whatever arrest(s) might be coming? Did they determine who has the binder, and this leak is their way of trying to bait that person into panicking and giving away where it’s hidden?

It feels like this leak to the media is a prelude to something, and another shoe is about to drop. What that might look like is anyone’s guess. But a story about a secretive hunt this sensitive doesn’t just leak to the media for no reason, right? There has to be more to it – and it may be just a matter of time before we see that other shoe dropping.