What do you think about the claim that the documents retrieved by the FBI from Mar-a-Largo and marked as confidential had been declassified long before they were transported to Trump’s residence?

The search of Trump’s residence at Mar-A-Largo was authorized based on the belief Trump had retained classified documents at his home. The affidavit supporting the search warrant shows that the government believed these documents were being stored at Trump’s home, a facility that was not authorized to store classified material.

The affidavit stated that the 15 boxes retrieved in January of this year included 184 documents which bore classification marks, suggesting that Trump had indeed stored classified material at his home.

Kash Patel, a Trump Spokesperson, disputed this claim. In an interview last month, Patel argued that the justification for the search was bogus because the documents had already been declassified:

“The story says the National Archives found the documents had classification markings on them. That doesn’t mean that they were not declassified. All previously classified documents have classification markings on them; it shows they used to be classified. It’s petty bureaucracy at its finest, government simpletons not following a president’s orders to have them marked ‘declassified.’ The president has unilateral authority to declassify documents — anything in government. He exercised it here in full.”

Patel describes his role in the declassification of these documents and the resistance he met from government officials:

“What had happened was President Trump substituted me in to be his representative at the National Archives because we did this big declass at the end of the Trump administration. And his cronies actually bureaucratically stopped the declassification process, if you believed it.”

Patel further stated that the materials, if disclosed, would prove Trump’s innocence in the “Russia-gate” scandal:

“Trump declassified whole sets of materials in anticipation of leaving government that he thought the American public should have the right to read themselves. The White House counsel failed to generate the paperwork to change the classification markings, but that doesn’t mean the information wasn’t declassified. I was there with President Trump when he said ‘We are declassifying this information.’”

What do you think of these claims?