Say It ,,, 'Declassified' -- Done!

"There doesn't have to be a process, as I understand it."

"If  you're the president of the  United States, you can declassify just by saying it's declassified."

"You're the president --you make that decision."

Donald Trump, former President of the United States of America

 

"[The] exceptional sensitivity [of the material found at Mar-a-Lago will count as an aggravating factor as prosecutors weigh whether to file charges in the case]."

"The exceptional sensitivity of these documents and the reckless response of invaluable sources and methods of U.S. intelligence capabilities concerning these foreign adversaries will certainly influence the Justice Department's determination of whether to charge Mr. Trump or others with willful retention of national defence information under the Espionage Act."

David Laufman, former senior Justice Department official 

"[Mar-a-Lago] does not include a secure location authorized for the storage of classified information."

"[Classified documents] have not been handled in an appropriate manner or stored in an appropriate location."

"Accordingly, we ask that the room at Mar-a-Lago where the documents had been stored be secured and that all of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago [along with any other items in that room] be preserved in that room in their current condition until further notice."

Jay Bratt, Senior Justice Department official

A man walks past boxes that were moved out of the Eisenhower Executive Office building, just outside the West Wing, inside the White House complex, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021, in Washington.

Gerald Herbert | AP

 

Among some of the classified documents the FBI recovered from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and private club were highly sensitive intelligence reports respecting Iran and China; information that could expose intelligence-gathering methods the U.S. needs to keep secure from unauthorized eyes. Among those documents was one, perhaps more, describing Iran's missile program while others described highly sensitive intelligence highlighting China 

Multiple risks would be posed by unauthorized disclosures of information in such documents. That of people connected to U.S. intelligence efforts placed in an endangered situation, while collection methodology could be compromised. Aside from which other countries or American adversaries could retaliate for actions taken impacting on them. Among the most sensitive of the secret documents were those focusing on Iran and China.

The former president denies having done anything untoward in his possession of the documents; after all, he was the president, aspiring to repeat that performance in the next election as a personage by far the most supported by, and influential in the Republican Party. Of the documents he maintaned at is home, he explains any such documents had been declassified by himself personally for a president can declassify information "even by thinking about it".

 

Former president Donald Trump has said that documents found at Mar-a-Lago were declassified and that the FBI planted documents. Photograph: Pablo Martínez Monsiváis/AP

 

On August 8 the FBI's court-sanctioned search of Mr. Trump's home saw about 13,000 documents seized, some 103 of them classified while 18 were top secret, court papers revealed. In the course of the investigation those papers became the third batch of classified documents recovered. Boxes voluntarily sent from Ma[-a-Lago to the National Archives and Records Administration earlier were found to contain 184 classified documents, 25 if which were marked top secret.

 

One document described a foreign country's military defences including nuclear capabilities. U.S. intelligence agencies believe Tehran is close to having enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, not yet having mastered technology surrounding technologies required to deploy a nuclear warhead with a long-range delivery system. Many of the top secret papers Trump took along with him to Mar-a-Lago on leaving the White House represent analysis papers providing valuable clues to foreign adversaries.

 

Following months of negotiations Mr. Trump agreed to turn over 15 boxes of material. The boxes were found to contain 184 documents marked classified when archivists examined the box contents -- including 25 marked top secret scattered in no order throughout. Since the search of the former president's home, Mr. Trump has loftily claimed he could, as president, declassify information with no paperwork required, on his own initiative, in his singular presidential authority.

Workers move boxes onto a truck on West Executive Avenue between the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021.

Jim Lo Scalzo | Bloomberg | Getty Images