A “standing order” that former President Donald Trump has claimed authorized him to instantly declassify documents removed from the Oval Office could not be found by either the Justice Department or Office of Director of National Intelligence.
The disclosure by the agencies was made in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed last August by Bloomberg News, which sued ODNI and the Justice Department’s national security division for a copy of Trump’s so-called standing order — if one existed.
Trump insisted that he had such a declassification order after the FBI found top secret materials at his Mar-a-Lago home last year. He has since been charged in the case by Special Counsel Jack Smith, making him the first former president to face federal allegations of criminal conduct.
