Intelligence Committee Rep. rubbishes Trump's claim of a 'standing order' to declassify documents as 'utter baloney'

• Jim Himes said that Trump's claims of a "standing order" to declassify any documents he took are false.

• The declassification process can take a long time.

• 11 sets of classified records were recovered from Mar-a-Lago by the FBI.

Jim Himes said that Donald Trump's claims that he had a "standing order" to declassify any documents he took are "utter baloney."

There is an elaborate documented process for declassifying the president, which can take months.

He's going to say that because it throws a bit of mud into the water. I can tell you that it's not true, I see the most sensitive information this country has as well.

The FBI recovered 11 sets of classified records from Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, some of which were marked top secret and intended to be stored in special government facilities because of their sensitive nature.

The former president claimed in a statement to Fox News that he had a "standing order" to declassify documents when they left the Oval Office.

Himes, the representative for Connecticut's 4th congressional district, described the stringent security process for accessing sensitive documents in government facilities.

I will commit a felony if I take documents out of that facility. He said that a president breaking the law if he takes them out of a facility.

Himes didn't believe that Trump thought the documents were declassified, and he would have corrected them if he had.

If he thought that that would be the case, there would be about 50 people who wouldn't accept that.

Himes said that Trump's latest claim is just an attempt to distract from the issue, such as his comparison of Obama taking documents to Chicago after he left office.

Himes said that they should keep an eye on the main thing, which is the Trump defense.

The Espionage Act is one of the laws being investigated by the Department of Justice after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago.

The handling of national security information is not dependent on the classification of the documents.

Business Insider has an article on it.