Nonetheless, let's look into the claim that Trump had a secret standing order to declassify records. Rick Grenell, Trump's national security director, said that, quote, "There is this phony idea that he must provide notification for declassification but that's just silly. Who is he supposed to notify?". Well, the answer is he's supposed to notify the American people and members of the administration.
When something is declassified, that means the public is allowed to see the information. The declassification system isn't about the President's convenience. Glen Gerstell, the top lawyer for the National Security Agency from 2015 to 2020, called Trump's claim "Preposterous". He said that the information should be logged so that it could be identified. He also said that Trump should notify the federal agencies that use of those documents, but Trump's power as the commander-in-chief gave him broad authority to declassify records, but Trump didn't wield his power to declassify records in the way that past presidents did, which is probably why we keep hearing new theories about how he might have declassified information.
We can learn a lot by looking at what his predecessor did with classified information. President Obama issued Executive Order 13526 on December 29th, 2009. Obama's order created a National Declassification Center with a mission to declassify government materials and make them available to the public. To that end, the Obama order established that no records may remain classified indefinitely in an attempt to increase government transparency. The order also provides deadlines for declassifying information exempted from automatic declassification at 25 years. The National Declassification Center is part of the National Archives.
Now, Trump did not rescind on Obama's Executive Order, and that means that government departments are still following its procedures. Trump himself was probably not obligated to follow this order when declassifying records, although some lawyers have argued that Trump
was legally required to follow the order or rescind it. Now, Courts have never had to decide this issue because presidents who don't agree with their predecessor's orders simply rescind them and issue new ones, but, that argument goes, because Trump was president and had plenary powers to declassify things, he could just declassify documents without telling anyone.
Oh yes, the Vulcan Mind Declassification:
Now during his administration, Trump asserted that he could declassify records by word, tweet, or thought. For example, on October 26th, 2020, Trump tweeted, quote, "I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any and all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russian Hoax. Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions, exclamation point".
Now, news organizations rushed to obtain the apparently declassified documents, but the Trump White House denied that the President had the authority to declassify by Tweet without following protocol. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said that Trump's tweet about declassifying documents related to the Russia investigation were not an order to declassify or release further documents. He filed a sworn declaration stating, quote, "The president indicated to me that his statements on Twitter were not self-executing declassification orders, and do not require the declassification or release of any particular documents."
Trump's defenders claim that he declassified material by simply speaking the words aloud, and that the real problem is that other people didn't follow the appropriate processes after Trump spoke. Former Pentagon employee Kashyap Patel said that he was in the room when Trump said that they were declassifying information. Patel then threw White House lawyers under the bus, quote, "White House counsel failed to generate the paperwork to change the classification markings, but that does not mean the information wasn't declassified".
Now, when a document is declassified, it's stamped with the word "declassified" and the date that the records were declassified. If that didn't happen, the records haven't been declassified, or at least they must be treated as still classified. Now, none of that stopped Trump's defenders from claiming that Trump's declassification powers were so broad that he could actually declassify stuff with his mind.
A spokesperson from the Heritage Foundation said, quote, "There's a rich debate about whether or not a document is declassified if a president has decided but not communicated it outside of his own head." Now, maybe there's a debate at the Heritage Foundation, but that defense would probably not work in a court of law to suggest that the President's thoughts have the power of law. Now, bottom line, if the alleged declassified documents weren't modified to state that they had been declassified, then they hadn't been declassified.