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Former President Trump in a new interview asserted presidents don’t have to go through a formal process to declassify sensitive documents, and can do so “even by thinking about it.”
The former president’s comments came as he has repeatedly argued that he declassified secret and top secret documents he took with him to his Florida home after leaving the White House in 2021 amid a Justice Department investigation into his handling of classified materials.
“There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, ‘It’s declassified.’ Even by thinking about it.”
“There can be a process but there doesn’t have to be. You’re the president, you make that decision. So when you send it, it’s declassified,” Trump added. “I declassified everything.”
Though presidents have broad power to declassify records, doing so sets off a chain of events, as the intelligence agencies that manage such records must take additional steps.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-claims-presidents-declassify-documents-021256427.html
