Skip to content Skip to footer

18 Former Trump Officials Say “Standing Order” to Declassify Docs Never Happened

One former Trump official described the notion as “foolish,” noting that no paper trail of such an order exists.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump addresses supporters during a rally at York Family Farms on August 21, 2021, in Cullman, Alabama.

Former President Donald Trump is asserting that he had previously issued a “standing order” for the declassification of documents he removed from the White House and kept in his Mar-a-Lago property — but several former Trump administration officials have disputed that claim.

According to CNN, 18 officials — some anonymously and some on the record — have said that Trump never gave such an order, including national security and intelligence officials, lawyers for the former White House, officials within the Department of Justice (DOJ), and Mick Mulvaney and John Kelly, two of Trump’s three chiefs of staff.

Many of the officials questioned by CNN laughed at the idea, and one senior official described the claim as “bullshit.”

“Nothing approaching an order that foolish was ever given,” Kelly said to CNN. “And I can’t imagine anyone that worked at the White House after me that would have simply shrugged their shoulders and allowed that order to go forward without dying in the ditch trying to stop it.”

Others noted that there was no evidence that a “standing order” had ever been issued.

“Total nonsense. If that’s true, where is the order with his signature on it?” one former senior Trump official said.

That same official suggested that there would be “tremendous pushback from the Intel Community and [the Department of Defense], which would almost certainly have become known to Intel and Armed Services Committees on the Hill.”

Security experts have also cast suspicion on Trump’s assertions. While a sitting president can indeed decide which documents should be declassified, they said, such an order couldn’t have been issued without documentation.

“The president is the ultimate classifier and de-classifier — but he can’t just wave a magic wand, and he can’t do it in secret,” Douglas London, a former CIA agent, said to ABC News.

“If [Trump] and his allies are defending his handling of these documents by claiming that they’re no longer classified, they need to show the paper trail,” he added.

David Laufman, a former chief of the DOJ’s counterintelligence division, who investigated the email scandal involving Hillary Clinton, agreed.

“It can’t just be an idea in his head. Programs and officials would have been notified. There is no evidence they were,” Laufman told CNN this week.

As part of its investigation into the documents that were improperly kept at Mar-a-Lago, the FBI is now questioning several former Trump administration officials, inquiring if Trump ever gave such an order, Rolling Stone reported. But whether Trump ordered officials to declassify certain documents doesn’t really matter, as it’s likely that Trump’s actions broke the law regardless of what classification status the materials had at the time the search warrant was executed.

“What’s listed in the search warrant is fascinating both for what it includes and what it doesn’t include,” Glenn Gerstell, former general counsel of the National Security Agency, told NPR, referring to the Espionage Act statutes that were cited in the warrant. “What it doesn’t include…is a statute that makes it a crime to knowingly remove or retain classified documents.”

Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.

Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.

Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.

As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.

And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.

In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.

We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.

We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $150,000 in one-time donations and to add 1,500 new monthly donors.

Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.

If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!

With gratitude and resolve,

Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy