Updated Sep 22, 2022 - Politics & Policy

Trump: Presidents can declassify documents "even by thinking about it"

Rebecca Falconer

Former president Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally to support local candidates at the Mohegan Sun Arena on September 03, 2022 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. — Former President Trump speaks at a rally to support local candidates in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., earlier this month. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Former President Trump insisted in a Fox News interview broadcast Wednesday night that he declassified government documents before taking them to his Mar-a-Lago residence.

Why it matters: The issue of classified documents is central to the Department of Justice's investigation into Trump and the former president's legal battle with the DOJ after the FBI last month seized a raft of government papers at his property in Palm Beach, Florida, some of which were labeled "top secret."

What he's saying: "There doesn't have to be a process, as I understand it," Trump said in the pre-recorded interview on Fox News' "Hannity."

"If you're the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, 'It's declassified,'" he told Fox News' Sean Hannity.
"Even by thinking about it, because you're sending it to Mar-a-Lago or to wherever you're sending it. ... There can be a process, but there doesn't have to be."

The big picture: The Justice Department contends that the records belong to the government, not Trump.

A federal appeals court ruled earlier Wednesday, after Trump recorded the Fox News interview, that the DOJ could resume reviewing the classified documents.
The court noted that while Trump had suggested he'd declassified papers when he was president, there's no record of this.

Go deeper: Presidential Records Act and Trump search explained

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more context.

Add Axios on Google

Trump: Presidents can declassify documents "even by thinking about it"

What to read next