Washington (CNN)FBI has seized classified and classified documents from Donald Trump's Marla Days later, Lago Resort, the former president and his allies, allege they had a "standing order" to declassify documents Trump brought from the Oval Office to the White House residence.
However, 18 former Trump administration officials told CNN that he had never heard of such an order being issued while working for Trump, and that the allegations He said he believed it was clearly false.
Some officials laughed at the idea. A senior government official called it "bullshit." Two of Trump's former chiefs of staff have gone on record to deny the allegations.
John Kerry, who served as President Trump's chief of staff for his 17 months from 2017 to 2019, said, "Nothing comes close to an order given by a fool." No,' he said. Home after me would have simply shrugged and allowed myself to move forward without dying in the ditch trying to stop that order.
Mick Mulvaney, who succeeded Kelly as acting White House chief of staff, also dismissed the idea, telling CNN that during his tenure he was "not on a general standing order." I didn't know," he said.
Additionally, CNN spoke with former national security and intelligence officials, White House attorneys, and Justice Department officials. Taken together, their tenure spanned all four of his years in the Trump administration, and many were included in the declassification process or at least stood to be aware of such orders.
Officials continued to ridicule claims that President Trump had orders to declassify documents that left the Oval Office and were brought into the official residence.
"It's absolutely ridiculous," said a senior White House official. "If that's true, where are the orders with his signature on them? If so, there would have been a huge backlash from the Intel community and the Pentagon. The meeting would have known." "
Many of the officials spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity to discuss candidly the dynamics within the Trump administration and avoid potential backlash from the former president.
27}Comprehensive Declassification Claims
Trump and his allies have made a variety of declassification claims following the August 8 FBI raid on Mar-a-Alago. As a result, federal agents seized 11 sets of classified documents, including those marked with the highest level of classification.
Mr Trump said on his social media last week: On platform Truth Social, he claimed that the documents in the box confiscated by the FBI at his home were "all declassified."
John Solomon, editor-in-chief of conservative website Just the News, was more specific in an interview with Fox's Sean Hannity last week. Solomon, who Trump has nominated as one of the nominees for the National Archives, read a statement from Trump's team and said the former president said, "The documents that were taken out of the Oval Office and brought into the official residence were, at that moment, It had a standing order that it would be considered declassified," he removed them. Kash Patel, a Trump ally and former national security officer in the Trump administration and one of his former presidential nominees for the archives, also told Fox last week, Trump said he "issued a full declassification order." More than once. Patel said he didn't know if the Mar-a-Lago box contained documents that were part of those orders.
Kash Patel, former national security officer in the Trump administration.
Representatives for the former president did not respond to requests for comment. Solomon and Patel also did not respond.
"It can't be an idea in his head."
There is a process to be followed by the president, officials said. Declassification must be commemorated and includes careful review and notification agencies such as the CIA, NSA, Department of Energy, Department of State, and Department of Defense.
David Raufman, the former chief of the Department of Justice's counterintelligence division who investigated Hillary Clinton's handling of classified documents, said, "It can't be the idea in his head." They would have been notified. There is no evidence that they were.”
Raufmann's successor, Jay Bratt, met with Trump's lawyers about the documents in Maralago on June 4. was one of five federal agents, CNN previously reported.
A source familiar with Trump's declassification within the White House said that while it is true that the president has broad declassification powers, Trump needed to set the record straight. said he would.
"As a matter of fact, we have to prove it," said the source. "When he says, 'I declassified something,' the obvious question is, 'Did you tell anyone about it?' The obvious concern is that this is all after the fact."[79] }
Another source with knowledge of how the former president acted said it was Trump's view that he could declassify information whenever he liked.
"He was advised that it would not work," the source said.
``Complete fiction''
Former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton called the concept of a permanent declassification order ``complete fiction'' .
And Olivia Troy, former homeland security adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence. called the concept of blanket declassification "ridiculous." Another former senior intelligence official laughed and said she was "silly."
A source familiar with White House records and declassification also said Trump's allegations were "absurd" and that if such an order existed, it would be "Trump's best kept secret." said it was.
Trump's claim that the documents were declassified was merely an apparent attempt to defend himself for bringing the documents to Mar-a-Lago, according to multiple sources. I believe not.
"There is a declassification process and the president can't just wave a magic wand," said a former Trump administration official.
All 18 former Trump administration officials agreed with him, speaking to CNN. "It doesn't work that way. There is a real process," said a former White House national security official.
"If this existed, there had to be some way to commemorate it," Bolton said on "New Day." "A White House attorney had to write it down, otherwise how could people throughout the government know what to declassify?"
"They would have resigned."
A former senior intelligence official said intelligence leaders such as then-CIA Director Gina Haspel would have been informed of the declassification order.
"And they wouldn't have allowed it," said the official. ``They would have resigned.''
Classification expert Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrets Project, said the president had little or nothing to do with the classification and declassification of information. It states that it has unlimited discretion. But Aftergood said the idea that documents were declassified based on location, such as being taken from the White House, simply "undermines credibility."
"A document that is classified in Washington, D.C. is not classified in Florida. Some may say that, but it makes no sense," he said. . "And it calls into question the good faith of those who make such allegations." and in my two-and-a-half years working on national security at the White House, I have never heard this discussed.”
and now leads an anti-Trump Republican group.
His CNN political commentator Alyssa Farrer, who resigned as his director of White House communications shortly after the 2020 presidential election, said his Griffin called the sweeping declassification "very reckless." called.
"The idea that presidents and former presidents can basically do whatever they want with America's secrets poses immense risks to America's national security," Griffin said. rice field.
Another former intelligence official said, "We would know," and that the documents were automatically declassified "after the horse, trying to close the barn door." It's like,' he added.