According to an ABC News report, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had informed Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office that he had not been aware of former President Donald Trump calling for sensitive documents to be declassified before leaving the White House in 2021. This is one of the major defenses that Trump has been pushing in regard to the case surrounding the classified documents found in his Mar-a-Lago estate.
While talking with investigators Meadows had reportedly stated that he did not know of Trump issuing an order to declassify the documents before he left the White House in January 2021. He added that he also did not know of Trump having put a “standing order” that would automatically declassify the material that was taken out of the White House.
Trump, who was indicted in this case earlier this summer, pleaded not guilty to 40 charges relating to his alleged mishandling of classified documents, which he retained even after leaving the White House. As part of the charges Trump is facing, he is also accused of having attempted to obstruct the federal investigation from taking back the documents.
The former president has maintained that he has done nothing wrong in relation to this case and has frequently stated that all of the documents the FBI recovered during their raid of Mar-a-Lago in August had been declassified before he left the White House.
In September 2022, he had even alleged in an interview with Fox News that the president had the power to declassify any documents just by thinking about it.
