Trump Says Documents Seized by FBI From Mar-a-Lago Were Declassified Under a “Standing Order” While He Was President +
GATEWAY PUNDIT | By Cristina Laila | August 12, 2022
IT WAS ALL DECLASSIFIED.
That’s all that matters.
A US President has the power to declassify documents.
The FBI and goons at the National Archives are not above a US President.
President Trump on Friday described the declassification process in a statement to John Solomon of Just The News.
“He had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken into the residence were deemed to be declassified,” Trump’s office said in a statement to Just The News. “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.”
Just The News reported:
Donald Trump’s office told Just the News on Friday that the classified materials the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate were declassified under a “standing order” while he was president that allowed him to take sensitive materials to the White House residence at night to keep working.
The official statement is likely to become the focus of the president’s legal defense as the FBI and Biden Justice Department investigate whether he stole records covered under the Presidential Records Act or mishandled classified materials under the Espionage Act, allegations included in a search warrant released by a federal court in Florida on Friday.
The president’s defense is rooted in the legal principal that the president and vice president are the ultimate declassifying authority of the U.S. government and through executive orders most recently issued in 2003 by George W. Bush and Barack Obama in 2009 that specifically exempt the president and vice president from having to follow the stringent declassification procedures every other federal agency and official must follow.
The very fact that these documents were present at Mar-a-Lago means they couldn’t have been classified,” the former president’s office stated. “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 Deep State FBI leaked the contents of the boxes of documents they took in the raid on President Trump’s home on Monday night.
According to the anonymous leak to The Wall Street Journal the items included:
** 20 boxes of items
** 11 sets of classified documents
** Top secret documents
** Sensitive Compartmented documents
** Binders of photos
** Clemency order for Roger Stone
** Information about the “President of France”
** A handwritten note
Trump responded to the latest leak in a series of posts to his Truth Social page
“Number one, it was all declassified. Number two, they didn’t need to “seize” anything. They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago. It was in secured storage, with an additional lock put on as per their request…” Trump said.
“…They could have had it anytime they wanted—and that includes LONG ago. ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ASK. The bigger problem is, what are they going to do with the 33 million pages of documents, many of which are classified, that President Obama took to Chicago?” Trump added.
Donald Trump's office says classified materials the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate were declassified under a "standing order" while he was president that allowed him to take sensitive materials to the White House residence at night to keep workinghttps://t.co/mk6BizlrJI
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) August 13, 2022
