Ben Rhodes just said on MSNBC that there's no way Trump declassified all those documents

[JoanofArgh]

He said there's a lot of protocol Trump would have to go through and there's no way he would have gotten this done on his way out the door. It doesn't matter one way or the other but confirms my suspicions.

[Walleye]

1. I mean are we supposed to just take his word for it for chrissakes?

[JoanofArgh]

2. He lies about everything. I don't believe anything the asshole says, lol

[Walleye]

3. I think that is always a safe bet

[grumpyduck]

4. Right, and I would think, given how government works,

that there would be a paper trail and rubber stamps or other markings on the documents.

[oasis]

5. Proper protocols would need to be taken for each document. nt

[unblock]

6. More directly, had he declassified everything, the doj would have known that

Among the many steps I'm sure they took out of an abundance of caution before raising the home of a former president, I'm quite certain they would have checked to make sure that whatever materials he took were in fact still classified.

Note that the government maintains an inventory of all classified material, so they likely knew in advance exactly what materials were missing, at least for some of it.

Very very likely, they did at least some inventory any found certain classified documents missing. Seems pretty basic. You don't go looking for bank robbers if all the bank's money is still where it's supposed to be.

[JoanofArgh]

10. Yep. Judd Legum said on Twitter that Presidents can't declassify nuclear documents.

Only the Atomic Energy Commission can declassify those.

[joshcryer]

7. Trump wants his followers to believe he could just claim it was declassified...

...and it would be.

[Shrike47]

8. He declassified the documents by thinking 'I declassify you.' It's a useful power.

I am sure he didn’t bother with all the regulatory red tape.

[unblock]

11. Someone here posted a clip of michael Scott from "the office" saying "I declare bankruptcy"

Yeah, there's actually some paperwork involved 😂

[TexLaProgressive]

9. I doubt he did, but

Even if so those records and documents belong in the archives, not growing moldy in Florida.

Lock him up

[D_Master81]

12. So he declassified..

So we’re to believe Trump declassified something that goes beyond “Top Secret” classification? If so he should be allowed nowhere near the levers of government again.

[Novara]

13. No, he didn't.

There's a process for different levels of declassification and he didn't do any of it. He can't wave a magic wand. In addition, some of it is so sensitive that it CAN'T be declassified.

Regardless, and I wish the media would report this, Biden stripped him of his security clearance, so he was not authorized to have ANY of it.

[Trueblue1968]

14. trump is a liar .... he doesn't know how to declassify his toe nail

[Hermit-The-Prog]

15. The criminal codes cited in the warrant do not depend on classification of documents.