More than a dozen officials who worked in the Trump White House say there was no “standing order” declassifying the documents FBI agents seized at Mar-a-Lago during a search earlier this month.
Since the search, Donald Trump and his allies have been claiming that the former president had a “standing order” to declassify documents he took from the White House.
However, 18 former Trump White House aides including two chiefs of staff told CNN that no such order existed.
“Nothing approaching an order that foolish was ever given,” John Kelly said. “And I can’t imagine anyone that worked at the White House after me that would have simply shrugged their shoulders and allowed that order to go forward without dying in the ditch trying to stop it.”
Mick Mulvaney who succeeded Kelly as acting chief of staff told CNN he was “not aware” of any standing order.
Many of the officials who spoke to CNN did so on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly and to avoid any backlash from Trump.
Several of them laughed at the notion of Trump having a standing order to declassify documents and one senior administration official called it “bullshit.”
“Total nonsense,” another senior White House official said. “If that’s true, where is the order with his signature on it? If that were the case, there would have been tremendous pushback from the Intel Community and DoD, which would almost certainly have become known to Intel and Armed Services Committees on the Hill.”
An anonymous source familiar with White House records and declassification said Trump’s claim was “laughable” and if any such order existed, it was “Trump’s best kept secret.”
All 18 former Trump aides agreed that’s not how documents are declassified.
“There is a process to declassify, the president can’t just wave a magic wand,” a former senior Trump White House official said.
“It doesn’t even work that way, there is an actual process,” another former White House national security official said.
The FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on August 8 and seized 11 sets of classified documents. They include documents identified as “Various classified/TS/SCI documents,” according to the inventory. The list of items taken also notes that agents seized four sets of documents marked “top-secret,” three sets of documents marked “secret” and three sets of documents marked “confidential.”
