Mark Meadows’ testimony contradicts Trump claim that FBI took declassified documents from Mar-a-Lago
Former President Donald Trump and his inner circle of allies continue to circulate claims that declassified documents were removed from Mar-a-Lago during the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) search of his estate.
In fact, according to HuffPost, former Trump official Kash Patel recently echoed that same argument during an interview with Fox News' Mark Levin.
“In October of 2020, President Trump put out for the world to see, a sweeping declassification order, and he did it via social media — every single Russia-gate doc, every single Hillary-gate doc, everyone,” Patel said on Sunday.
On Oct. 6, 2020, Trump actually did tweet, “I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax. Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!”
However, previous remarks debunking that claim are now circulating again on social media. Per HuffPost, later that month Mark Meadows, who served as White House chief of staff under Trump, "conceded in a sworn declaration to a federal court that Trump’s tweet was not an order to declassify or release those records."
In a sworn statement, the former Trump White House chief of staff wrote, “The president indicated to me that his statements on Twitter were no self-executing declassification orders, and do not require the declassification or release of any particular documents."
Meadows added that "the tweets 'related to authority' the president had delegated" to U.S. Attorney General William Barr pertaining to records.
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The sworn statement was written after a judge demanded that an explanation be provided on why the former president's tweets appeared to contradict the White House stance on declassifying Russia-related documents.
In addition to recalling Trump's tweets, Patel – who stepped in as acting chief of staff after Meadows' departure — also claimed that he "had witnessed Trump declassify 'whole sets of documents' in December 2020 and January 2021 while Trump was 'on his way out.'”
However, HuffPost notes that he previously said "the administration 'failed to generate the paperwork to change the classification markings.'” Declassification is not a process that can be completed in secret.
Watch Patel's Fox News appearance below or at this link:
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