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 trump s 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 records that the national archives is handing over to jack smith. the records apparently indicate trump and his top advisors were made aware of the correct process to declassify material while trump was president undercutting claims like this one. i took what i took and gets declassified. they become automatically declassified when i took them. and also this claim. it doesn t have to be a process. you re the president of the united states, you can declassify just by saying it s dec
thank you for your time. the ron desantis wait is almost over. sources saying the paperwork will be filed next week. his how to beat trump battle p plan is a blizzard on abortion, guns and transgender rights. plus the paper trail punctures a donald trump defense. new reporting reveals the special counsel will soon have his hands on 16 records that show, yes, the former president and his advisers knew how the declassification process was supposed to work. and president biden is in japan for a meeting of the world s leading economies. peers want assurances the political divide over the debt ceiling won t lead to a global financial mess. and we have new reporting on relationship between the president and speaker mccarthy. we re not there. we haven t greened to anything yet. and i think we have a structure now. and everybody is working hard. and we re working two or three times a a day and going back and getting more numbers. i have the greatest respect. they are exceptiona
counsel as we speak in a criminal probe. now, in just a moment, we will try to get some answers from trump s lawyer who will be joining me live. but first, a look at the brand-new information gathered by our cnn team. their sources say that there are 16 records of the national archives and what they are handing over to jack smith. they apparently indicate trump and his top advisors were made aware of the correct process to declassify material while trump was president, undercutting claims like this one. i took what i took against declassified. they become automatically declassified when i took them. and also this claim. it doesn t have to be a process. you are the president of the united states, you can declassified just by saying it is declassified, even by thinking about it. we are told the archives informed trump about its discovery yesterday in a letter. cnn has obtained a copy. it says, i am quoting, the 16 records and questionable reflect communication involving
were packed in boxes. last months one of his currents attorneys told cnn this about his understanding of the process let s take a listen. he used that bureaucratic process in the middle of his presidency to declassify the cross-fire hurricane matters that are the subject of that 316-page report we saw this week. at the end of his presidency, me relied on the constitutional authority as commander in chief which is to take documents and take them to mar-a-lago while still president, as he was at the time, and to effectively declassify and personalize them. he talked declassifying them but didn t need to. if you look at the constitution, you look at the presidential records act, there is absolutely no basis for saying that bureaucracy rules and the president doesn t have the authority entrusted in him by the voters to possess and to declassify and to hold onto documents. so the translation there is that former president trump followed the process until the end of his administration
take documents and take them to mar-a-lago while still president as he was at the time and to effectively declassify and personalize them. he talked about declassifying them. he didn t need to. if you look at the constitution, the presidential records act there is no basis for saying that bureaucracy rules and the president doesn t have the authority entrusted in him by the voters to possess and declassify and hold on to documents. hold on. let s look at the presidential records act and what it actually says. it says the united states shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession and control of presidential records and under federal law willfully removing any record or document carries the possibility of a three-year prison sentence. we went, we looked it up as journalists do, and you nowhere does it say you can mentally think about it and they are tee classified.