Trump’s Last-Minute Court Filing Undermines His Own Argument He Declassified ‘Everything’

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Former President Donald Trump appears to be his own worst enemy in the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into classified and top secret documents found at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump’s legal team issued its latest response to a DOJ filing regarding the former president’s request for an independent special master review of the documents obtained from Mar-a-Lago in an August 8 search and seizure.

The DOJ response was a stunning rebuke of the initial request and even included a damning photo revealing several classified, top secret, and even SSCI-marked documents. Curiously, none were marked as unclassified.

This is noteworthy because Trump’s defense of having these documents — which are the property of the US government — is that he had a “standing order” to declassify any documents he took with him as president. He is no longer president, however, and there is no record that a declassification protocol was followed.

Trump’s team argued in their Wednesday night filing that the National Archives should have expected to find classified material among the documents Trump delivered in January from Mar-a-Lago because they were presidential records. This is a clear acknowledgment that he was in possession of classified material — and a refutation of the argument he declassified everything.

What’s more, according to a law signed by President Trump in 2018, it’s a felony offense.

Former FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi also pointed out a line from Trump’s legal filing that read “…We agree with DOJ that a Special Master should have a Top Secret clearance.”

“Wait, I thought he declassified everything,” Figliuzzi mocked.

On Wednesday, Trump took to his social media platform to push back on the DOJ’s rebuke of his special master and insisted “lucky I declassified.”

According to his own legal team’s filing, however, it appears he did not.