A former Trump administration official stressed the critical importance of protecting classified documents amid new charges against former President Donald Trump alleging he mishandled secret material after leaving office.

Trump was charged Thursday with three additional felony counts in the Justice Departments probe, adding to the 37 he was already facing. Two new charges stem from alleged efforts to obstruct the investigation, including by ordering the deletion of incriminating security camera footage. A third charge is related to previously reported audio of Trump discussing a sensitive military document about possible attacks on Iran.

Everybody assumed that, knew that, the president was aware of the fact that classification mattered, Dan Coats , who served as director of national intelligence from 2017 to 2019, said in an interview on CNN Thursday .

It is sacrosanct, really, he continued. A lot of times people say, well, whats the big deal about all of this? If you walk into the lobby of the CIA, and look to the right wall, youll see a bunch of stars.

Those stars memorialize officers who die in the line of duty, Coats said, because somebodys got their names out, maybe on a classified document.