According to a report by Bloomberg News, it was discovered that last year, Donald Trump claimed to have issued a “standing order” to automatically declassify documents taken from the White House. However, federal agencies have stated that they have no record of such an order.
In response to Trump’s claim, Bloomberg filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Justice Department’s national security division and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, seeking a copy of the alleged order. The government attorneys have confirmed that these agencies possess “no records responsive” to this request.
This disclosure was prompted by a judge in a similar case in Massachusetts, who ordered the agencies to confirm the existence of any records referencing the supposed standing order.
In August, FBI agents searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate under warrant, retrieving boxes of secret documents that the government claimed Trump had improperly taken and refused to return. Trump’s team then released a statement, arguing that he had a standing order that classified documents removed from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were declassified upon his removal of them.
However, officials from Trump’s own administration cast doubts on this claim, stating that they had no recollection of such an order and considering it absurd. Even Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, called it “complete fiction.”
Recently, federal prosecutors indicted Trump on 37 felony counts related to this case, accusing him of risking national security, mishandling classified information, and obstructing government efforts to retrieve it.
A significant audio recording obtained by CNN further weakens Trump’s defense of the “standing order.” In the recording from July 2021, Trump is heard discussing “highly confidential” documents that he possessed but did not declassify as president.
Furthermore, Trump’s excuse has changed, with him claiming that he was not showing secret documents but instead golf course plans, and that his talk was just “bravado.”
In conclusion, the claim of a “standing order” to automatically declassify documents taken from the White House by Donald Trump lacks evidence and has been questioned by federal agencies and officials from his own administration. Trump now faces felony charges related to mishandling classified information.
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