There would be evidence if the documents were declassified.
Hillary Clinton was investigated by a former DOJ official.
Trump claimed that he had a standing order to declassify.
There would be evidence to support Trump's claim that he broadly declassified all the documents at Mar-a-Lago, says a former Department of Justice official.
The FBI raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. The search was part of a Justice Department investigation. 11 sets of classified materials were found during the search.
The documents that were taken to Trump's residence were removed from the Oval Office. When a president leaves office, presidential records are managed by the National Archives.
Laufman was the former chief of the Justice Department's counterintelligence division.
Laufman told CNN that it can't just be an idea in his head. They would have been notified. There is no proof that they were.
There is a process for declassifying documents according to former Trump administration officials. The process usually involves documenting the declassification and notifying agencies.
The documents Trump was holding at Mar-a-Lago were "stunning" and "egregious" according to Laufman. One set of documents was labeledSensitive Compartmented Information, the highest level of sensitivity a classified document can be designated.
Trump claimed that he had a standing order to declassify documents when they were transported. John Kelly and Mick Mulvaney, two of Trump's former chiefs of staff, told CNN they had never heard of it.
Kelly said nothing approaching an order that foolish was ever given. I don't think anyone that worked at the White House after me would have allowed that order to go forward, even if they wanted to stop it.
CNN spoke with a total of 18 former Trump administration officials who all said they had never heard of such an order, with several laughing at the idea and suggesting that it was a lie.
Business Insider has an article on it.
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