So you're actually starting to hit at the real issue here: a President CANNOT just "privately decide" that something is magically classified or declassified. If it actually worked that way, then former Presidents would effectively have lifetime privileges to declassify anything created up until the last day of their administration (OH! Didn't I tell you? I declassified that already!"), and it would give any current President the ability to make anyone with any government records at all a felon.Originally Posted by Gelston
That's why the processes exist- processes that the Executive Branch created, mind you. So to be very clear- a President CANNOT snap their fingers and make something classified/declassified. They have the authority to decide what what should be classified/declassified. But it still has to actually be classified/declassified. And it's obvious in this case that this stuff wasn't- because it still has classification markers.
But you're also missing a key issue here: the DoJ has been working with Trump for 15 months to try to recover these documents. There have been two court-ordered subpoenas, the FBI has forcibly removed documents from his residence several time even before this raid, and they've been telling him and his lawyers that he has material he's not legally allowed to possess.
So why the hell did he still have this stuff? At this point, Trump was keeping materials that he KNEW he was supposed to return. And you don't accidentally end up with TS/SCI materials. You have to physically remove them from the specific government facilities where they are legally required to be stored. And at any point in time over the last 15 months, he very well could have said "Oh I have some classified stuff, but I declassified it so I don't have to give it back".
He didn't. So the whole "Oh I already declassified it!" argument that just popped up after the FBI Raid found him in possession of materials that could very well land him in Federal prison rings a bit hollow.
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