Page 11 - Declassification Process News Today

Joining us now is national security lawyer mark zaid and charlie savage, washington correspondent for the new york times. thank you both for joining me. mark, let me start with you. in terms of the legal implications of all of this, what does trumps awareness mean in terms of the eyes of the law, as far as his -- what he knew about the declassification process and what he was saying and doing? >> its very significant, alex, because it goes to a state of mind, which is what criminal cases are gen...

Investigation into classified documents taken by donald trump to mar-a-lago may undercut some of his claims. at a cnn town hall last week the former u.s. president insisted that simply by removing the materials from the white house he had declassified them. >> why did you take those documents with you when you left the white house? >> i had every right to under the presidential records act. you have the presidential records act. i was there, and i took what i took and it gets declassified. >> a ...

Of the official process for up to the classified things, which totally makes sense because trump really like sharing classified information when he was in office. remember the time that president trump casually revealed havoc ossified information to the russian foreign minister during a white house meeting? or the time he tweeted out a highly classified image from a u.s. by satellite? or the time that he had sensitive discussions about north korea with the japanese prime minister in front of a c...

Things, but as i understand, it does not have to be -- if youre the president of the u.s., you could be classified by saying its the classified, even by thinking about it. >> that does not need to be a process, i can declassify it by when, when i think its declassified, when i say its the classified, is, proof. national security experts everywhere found this ridiculous, but trump stuck with the defense. this is what he said a town hall last week. >> i was there and took what i wanted to talk, an...

Knows, if youre handed classified information the government tells you the dos and donts of that intelligence exactly what the declassification process is. and certainly doesnt allow you to declassify it in your mind. so trump was aware that. these documents will show that, and thats going to blow a hole in his, i can declassify my mind to defense. >> neal katyal, thank you very much for joining us tonight. when we come back, today supreme court justice clarence thomas was the subject of the sen...

Supposed to work. and now those 16 written records could become a key part of special counsel jack smiths case against former president trump. according to cnn the 16 presidential records may provide critical evidence establishing the former presidents awareness of the declassification process, a key part into trumps mishandling of classified documents and the records may also provide insight into trumps intent and whether he willfully disregarded what he knew to be clearly established protocols...

His lawyers can find it legitimate enough to test this. so i think theres a high probability he will appeal, or try to block. >> thank you, appreciate it. on top of all this, one of the former presidents attorneys in the documents case, timothy parlatore, is leaving the legal team. thats what two sources familiar with the matter tell cnn. one of our guests reports as well. maggie haberman, author of -- the making of donald trump and breaking of america. >> so maggie, if the national archives all...

Hard evidence that shows donald trump and his top advisors knew of the correct declassification process while donald trump was president which flies in the face of what trump has claimed in the past. tonight the documents could be in the hands of the special counsel as we speak in a criminal probe. now, in just a moment we will try to get answers from trumps lawyer who will be joining me live. first, a look at the brand-new information gathered by our cnn team. their sources say there are 16 rec...

Tim timothy parlatore testified in december. his exit at a critical time when the special counsel may be nearing the final stretch in the criminal probe. we have one of the members still on donald trumps team. his name is jim trustee, and he joins us now. jim, thank you for being here. lets get right into it. as president of the united states, did donald trump know how the declassification process worked or did he just ignore it? >> well, president trump was exactly right in your town hall the o...

Defense team announced that he would be stepping down, that he claims his departure as nothing to do with the underlying case. joining us now is national security lawyer mark zaid and charlie savage, washington correspondent for the new york times. thank you both for joining me. mark, let me start with you. in terms of the legal implications of all of this, what does trumps awareness mean in terms of the eyes of the law, as far as his -- when he knew about the declassification process and what h...