Posted on 05/05/2022 1:16:34 PM PDT by conservative98
Kash Patel, a former top Trump administration official, told Breitbart News on Wednesday that a report claiming classified materials were found at Mar-a-Lago is misleading and that the documents were actually already declassified by then-President Donald Trump, but the classification markings had not been updated.
“Trump declassified whole sets of materials in anticipation of leaving government that he thought the American public should have the right to read themselves,” Patel told Breitbart News in a phone interview.
“The White House counsel failed to generate the paperwork to change the classification markings, but that doesn’t mean the information wasn’t declassified,” Patel said. “I was there with President Trump when he said ‘We are declassifying this information.'”
“This story is just another disinformation campaign designed to break the public trust in a president that lived on transparency. It’s yet another way to attack Trump and say he took classified information when he did not,” he added.
NBC News reported in February that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) found items “marked as classified national security information” within boxes sent to Mar-a-Lago. NARA made the disclosure in a letter replying to questions from Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY).
Maloney, chair of the House Oversight Committee, had asked NARA if there was classified information within 15 boxes that it recovered from Mar-a-Lago. NARA responded in a February 18, 2022, letter: “NARA has identified items marked as classified national security information within the boxes.”
Patel called the story “disinformation.”
“The story says the National Archives found the documents had classification markings on them. That doesn’t mean that they were not declassified. All previously classified documents have classification markings on them, it shows they used to be classified.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
It’s petty bureaucracy at its finest, government simpletons not following a president’s orders to have them marked ‘declassified.’ The president has unilateral authority to declassify documents — anything in government. He exercised it here in full,” he said.
“[For] NBC to make a leap to say, ‘Well that means he released classified information,’ is completely false,” Patel said.
I mean, it’s not like Trump stuffed the papers down his pants or anything.
Fake news about Trump? Wow, now that's a first.
I would say more, a lot more, but it is time for me to head over to my county Democratic party meeting. I'm a precinct chairman there and we do have to meet our responsibilities!
Whichever justice was even remotely associated with the leak needs to recuse him/herself on ANY further review or opinion of that issue
hahahahaha....I wonder do these leftist ever get tired of losing to Trump?
‘’ It’s petty bureaucracy at its finest, government simpletons not following a president’s orders to have them marked ‘declassified.’’
———-
Exactly and my take when this was announced. This is what President Trump was up against for four years.
It is difficult to update a document like that because every page is marked and would have to be changed page by page.
Many government docs get released like this, so of course.
Between the DOD and NASA, I read a lot of both classified and declassified documents over the years and I don’t think I ever saw a declassified one stamped that way.
They usually just had a note clipped to it that said it had been declassified on such and such a date, and by whom.
And anyway, doesn’t the President have the ultimate authority to classify and declassify ANY document he wants?
p
It is all about smearing mud and hoping that some of the “dirt” will stick.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.