That is some weapons grade bullshit right there, so lets take it apart.
No Trump did no declassify the documents. Some of the documents in his possession were at a security level so high they weren't supposed to ever be taken out of dedicated secure facilities. He just had them lying around at Mar-A-Lago. But let's just go further into the detail of why what you said is such bullshit. Let's compare the evidence in favour of Trump's claim he declassified them and the evidence against:
For:
- Trump said he did
Against:
- Trump said he did just by thinking it. That's never been a thing.
- Trump was recorded saying they were classified
- Trump didn't claim that as his very first defence in court, it came much later after his other lies were dispelled
- There are no records anywhere of the files in question going through the declassification procedure.
- There are no records or witnesses to support Trump's claim of even wanting to put them through the procedure, even if they didn't
- The documents all still had the varying degrees of classification markings on them. These are removed when files are declassified
- FBI agents weren't allowed to see the contents of the files, that would not have been an issue if they had been declassified
- Judge Cannon wasted weeks during the trial procedures appointing a special master to oversee the documents and determine what was an wasn't classified. This was legal malpractice anyway but the special master confirmed the files were still classified
- During the trial procedure, the US government was required to set up a SCIF facility, these are only required when dealing with classified information
- At no point during the trial process was the claim that the documents were declassified ever accepted by the court
- Early on Trump argued he was allowed to keep classified files, only later did he claim they weren't classified
- When the trial was thrown out on completely illegal grounds, the classification of the files was NOT disputed, they were still recognised as classified.
- The recovered files have gone straight back into secure facilities suitable for their classification and have not been made public as declassified documents can.
In addition Trump engaged in the following:
- Trump lied about possession of the documents, something he wouldn't do if he didn't want to hide them
- Trump had his team intentionally obstruct attempts to regain the files and hide them, again why do that if they've done nothing wrong?
- Trump claimed the documents were his PERSONAL possessions and not the possessions of the government. He kept citing the presidential records act, even though the act says the exact opposite of what Trump claimed. Presidential records are the property of the government, NOT the president as an individual. The only thing that a president has ownership of are the personal effects (eg if they kept a diary).
- He destroyed government documents that then had to be pieced back together after he ripped them up and even tried to flush them down the toilet. This has been testified to under oath.
Trump's organisations have been found guilty of fraud before he became president. Look up Trump university and the Trump foundation. In both cases in court they were found to have engaged in fraud. So now you find it surprising that a person with a proven history of fraud continued to engage in fraud...? You want to go on about nothing adding up and yet display zero critical thinking when it comes to Trumps lies.
To believe Trump declassified the files you have to either be a troll or a Trump cultist with zero critical thinking.
