First, a U.S. president does have uniquely sweeping declassification abilities, though there is a process that involves written documentation and several other steps. It has not been the case that a president could declassify documents with just verbal instructions. His instruction to declassify a ...
Trump has been all over the place while discussing classified documents—sometimes denying he had any, and other times claiming he was legally allowed to possess some. He bizarrely claimed last year—wholly incorrectly—that the president can declassify material “even by thinking about it,”...
Congress, the intelligence community, and even the President of the United States aren’t denying that the programs exist, or even their scope: Instead, they’re describing the programs as vital tools for U.S. national security — and insist everything’...