Donald Trump.Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty
“Because you’re sending it to Mar a Lago or to wherever you’re sending it, and there doesn’t have to be a process,” the former president added. “There can be a process, but there doesn’t have to be. You’re the president, you make that decision. So when you send it it’s declassified.”
Trump claimed again that he “declassified everything,” although the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta noted his legal team has not produced any evidence that any documents found whenfederal agents searched Mar-a-Lago in Augustwere declassified in its Wednesday ruling that the Department of Justice may continue to review those documents, according toTheWashington Post.
Donald Trump.James Devaney/GC Images
The court also noted in its ruling Wednesday that Trump’s legal team has actually “resisted providing any evidence that he had declassified any of these documents” in front of thespecial master appointed to review those same documents.
“In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal,” the appeals court wrote, according to thePost.
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According toTimesjournalistMaggie Haberman, Trump waswarned about the legal repercussions of holding on to classified government materialsin 2021, during a meeting with former White House attorney Eric Herschmann.
The alleged conversation, Haberman writes, “is the latest evidence that Mr. Trump had been informed of the legal perils of holding onto material.”
Trump reportedly assured officials that he had no more classified materials, but weeks later, “someone familiar with the stored papers told investigators there may be still more classified documents at the private club,” perThe Wall Street Journal.
In August, agents came back with the warrant, ultimately leaving with more than 100 documents.
source: people.com
