Well, if Hannity says it, it has to be true.
How would folks know what had been declassified or not? Did Trump mark them? Was Baron able to check them out with his school chums?
If the president wants them declassified than its declassified.
Hannity isn’t the only one saying it. John Solomon was on Hannity and said Trump had a standing order that anything he took out of the White House was immediately declassified. Solomon said he had numerous sources that said Trump did indeed have a standing order. Solomon gave an example of Bush declassifying something in his (Solomons) presence once just by saying such and such is now declassified. It’s not just Trump, all Presidents do it.
That’s a good question because I am positive that it will come up. Thus, I investigated. Marking always occurs after declassification. That means marking does not make a document declassified, it simply a procedure after declassification, which depending on the bureacracy may not occur immediately. As for the President’s power to declassify, it does not require process or following of law. It is strictly a constitutional power as part of being chief executive. That is spelled out in a USSC ruling. I posted an article the other day on that. Scalia joined the with the majority in the opinion.
“Hey, I’m going to read up on the B-21 bomber and Columbia SSBN programs this weekend at Mar-A-Lago, so that’s unclassified now”.
I look forward to seeing this standing order, and I doubt it is anything similar to Solomon’s words.
That doesn't really matter.
The president has absolute authority to declassify documents at his whim and this authority is not predicated on some underling filing the paperwork and changing the labels.
If the president said it's declassified, it's declassified.
Admittedly, we are in uncharted water here because something like the raid on MAL has never happened before but ultimately, if Trump wants to fight this, he's going to win.
Memorandum on Declassification of Certain Documents Related to Crossfire Hurricane
January 19, 2021
My phone won’t let me post the link.