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Operations and things like that. the intelligence community would have had an up roar if that were the way in which these documents were being treated. also problematic is the fact that donald trump when he wanted to de classify in the russia investigation to harm his political opponents, he went through a certain process to do it. he didn t say, take em out of the oval office and say they re magically declassified. so it is not surprising that mark meadows is saying now there was no standing order to de classify. i mean it is like finding out, as i said to andrew weissmann the other day, it is like finding out there s sugar and desert. of course everyone knows that. there s no standing order to declassify the documents. what? what i think meadows does though, nicolle, it says to it is the prosecutors now have someone highly credible, the president s former chief of staff, saying donald trump, your main defense is not true. ....
Work. it is not how an intelligence product works. any document that travels from one building to the other on the 18-acre complex would automatically be declassified. it would involve calling the intelligence agencies, calling american allies, calling the nsa and the cia every night to tell them what he took with him. i mean it was nonsensical, but to now have it completely confirmed in black and white there never was any such thing as a standard declassification order seems like a devastating legal fact from a pretty authoritative witness against trump in mark meadows. 100% of the calls. this has been trump s defense ever since the raid on mar-a-lago. he always said, i had a standing order to de classify documents when i took them out of the oval office, which is thoroughly preposterous on every level. for one thing, it would mean that like all of the nation s most sensitive secrets the moment they left the oval office were declassified, covert ....
Superseding indictments and know that case is ongoing. i would guess he is not out of the clear just yet in any case. but i do think he made an effort at least with the federal prosecutors to give them enough information to try to act as neither a pro-trump witness nor an anti-trump witness. that was his strategy going in, to not be very negative about trump but also not defending trump. we know from abc news that he did tell them that trump had not given an order to de classify a broad declassification or which, you know, many people at the white house had said, but we know he said that directly to the grand jury. neal, i just want to pull you in on this for your legal analysis. of course, you and i talked about it at the time, that the idea that there was any standing de classification i mean it is like oxymoronic, key on sort of moronic, that would never ....
We re back with our law and justice lead. this afternoon, donald trump responded to the recording you heard first on cnn. the former president discussing having secret documents that he did not de classify. trump continues to insist that he, quote, did nothing wrong. as cnn s paula reid reports. reporter: for the first time, the public is hearing former president trump in his own words claiming to have secret documents months after leaving the white house. i have a big pile of papers. this just came up. look. reporter: cnn obtained the bombshell recording of trump seem seemingly wrestle through papers and showing off a secret military document during an interview at his new jersey golf club in the summer of 2021. his staffers recording the conversation at his request and still he tells the room ....
Special counsel. he was even confronted and with trump s own words, his allies are still defending him. he said point blank, on tape, as president, i could have declarified it and now i can t. he said if his own words, it is on tape, as part of this indictment, that he did not de classify the materials. therefore it is saying he could have, saying could have is not the same as saying that he didn t. he said now i can t. he said that now he can t. right. because he s not president now. but when he was president he did de classify. he said that. let s discuss all of this with joanna goldberg of the dispatch and cnn s kristin holmes and alexizen stat who traveled with trump yesterday, one of two reporters with him. ....