Trump had no 'standing order' to declassify documents, intelligence agencies finally confirm

(Image credit: U.S. Department of Justice via Getty Images)

Six days after the FBI raided former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022 and removed boxes of classified documents he had refused to turn over, Trump issued a statement claiming all the documents he retained were declassified under a "standing order" he had issued when he was president. National security experts and former Trump administration officials were highly skeptical of the claim, and Bloomberg News reported Thursday that, in fact, no order was ever filed with the relevant federal agencies.

Some of those documents are at the center of the 37 felony counts the Justice Department has filed against Trump.

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On Thursday, after a court ruling in a similar case in Massachusetts threw out that rationale for withholding the information, government attorneys told Bloomberg that each agency "possesses no records responsive to your request" for Trump's alleged order.

The "standing order" claim is only one of many explanations Trump has given for his allegedly unlawful retention of highly classified documents. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Wednesday that based on his long acquaintance with Trump, he believes Trump just creates new lies about the documents each timed he's backed into a corner. The government's case against Trump doesn't require that the documents be classified in any case, only that they contain sensitive national security information.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.