Former President Donald Trump claims a “standing order” allowed him to declassify documents as soon as they left the Oval Office.
A statement from Trump’s office was read by journalist John Solomon on Fox News on Friday evening as the former president faces fallout from an FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this week in which agents reportedly seized all sorts of classified materials. The statement was met immediately with backlash from legal experts who argued the declassification authority does no work that way.
“As we can all relate to, everyone ends up having to bring home their work from time to time. American presidents are no different. President Trump, in order to prepare for work the next day, often took documents including classified documents from the Oval Office to the residence,” the statement read, according to Solomon’s Just the News website.
“He had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken into the residence were deemed to be declassified,” the statement added.
“The power to classify and declassify documents rests solely with the President of the United States. The idea that some paper-pushing bureaucrat, with classification authority delegated BY THE PRESIDENT, needs to approve of declassification is absurd,” the statement concluded.
Although no president has ever been prosecuted for mishandling classified material, some experts dispute the notion that one could suddenly deem something declassified and argue that the president must instead follow a formal process. As to Trump’s new statement, they argue that what he described is not possible.
“It. Does. Not. Work. This. Way,” national security lawyer tweeted bluntly.
Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe argued in an earlier Fox Business interview that it is “virtually impossible” to prosecute his onetime boss, former President Donald Trump, for alleged mishandling of classified material.
Search warrant documents from the Monday raid were unsealed on Friday after Trump declined to oppose the move. They show Trump is being investigated for a potential Espionage Act violation and possible obstruction of justice.
The records also described 46 items that the FBI said it had seized on Monday, including 27 boxes, “various classified / TS [top secret] / SCI [sensitive compartmented information] documents,” four items the FBI described as “miscellaneous top secret documents,” three dubbed “miscellaneous secret documents,” two labeled “miscellaneous confidential documents,” and one “confidential document.” Other records the FBI seized were the “Executive Grant of Clemency re: Roger Jason Stone Jr.,” “Info re: President of France,” two binders of photos, and a “handwritten note.”
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FBI agents reportedly recovered 11 sets of classified information, with some marked as top secret, among 20 boxes of items, according to a review of the inventory by the Wall Street Journal.
Trump and his allies insist the documents were declassified, and they have decried the search of Mar-a-Lago. “The Biden administration is in obvious damage control after their botched raid where they seized the President’s picture books, a ‘hand written note,’ and declassified documents,” said Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich.
