Trump admitted to taking government documents to Mar-a-Lago, claiming without producing any evidence that had done so because he had given “verbal orders” to declassify the documents.
“I have the absolute right to declassify, absolute,” Trump said. “A president has that absolute right, and a lot of people aren’t even challenging that anymore.”have disputed Trump’s claims that he gave a “standing order”There is no evidence that Trump declassified any of the material that ended up at Mar-a-Lago beyond his own statements and those of his allies, which. The former president has not produced any physical evidence backing up his claims.
Trump’s claim that the president is the ultimate authority on the classification status of documents “is true,”. “BUT there is case law from the Trump era clarifying how, in the view of the courts, a mere tweet or verbal statement was not enough to actually declassify a record. Further action was required.”