Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly had to repeatedly remind the former president he could not share classified information with friends, NYT journalist says

• Trump's former chief of staff did not trust how he handled classified information, NYT journalist says.
• Michael Schmidt said John Kelly was concerned that Trump "could damage national security."

John Kelly, Donald Trump's ex-chief of staff, had to repeatedly remind the former president that he couldn't share classified information with friends, New York Times journalist Michael Schmidt said.

Schmidt, the author of "Donald Trump v. The United States," told MSNBC on Saturday that Kelly was "terrified" about a lot that had to do with the former president.

"Kelly did not trust that Trump knew how to handle classified information,' Schmidt said.

This comes as the Justice Department is probing the former president for possibly mishandling classified information, In August of last year, the FBI raided Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago after a search warrant was issued to search for missing classified documents. The warrant was issued after requests from the National Archives to return the classified and sensitive information went unanswered.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has since assigned a special counsel in the Department of Justice to investigate Trump's handling of classified documents.

Schmidt told MSNBC that Trump would openly talk about confidential information and "Kelly would try to stop Trump from doing things that could damage national security."

Schmidt added: "Here's the chief of staff to the president of the united state concerned that the president of the united states could damage national security. Remember the president of the united states is in charge of protecting the country, but Trump behaved in such an abnormal, immoral way in Kelly's eye that he didn't trust what Trump would do."