Donald Trump’s senior national security assistant has been granted immunity from prosecution so that he can testify regarding the storage of secret papers at Mar-a-Lago.
In May, 42-year-old Kash Patel informed Breitbart News that the previous president declassified vast amounts of information before departing the White House.
Following a series of raids, thousands of sensitive documents were discovered in storage at Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago.
On August 8, following the third and last search, the FBI started an inquiry to see whether classified information was mishandled.
Patel testified before a grand jury in early October as part of the inquiry, but repeatedly cited the Fifth Amendment, claiming he could not speak for fear of self-incrimination.
Wednesday, many sources verified that Patel had been granted immunity in order to obtain his testimony, as had been widely anticipated.
Patel, an ardent Trump supporter, is a crucial member of the Trump team’s efforts to thwart Justice Department investigations of Trump and his supporters.
In response to repeated pleas for Trump to turn over the records to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Trump appointed him as one of his representatives to NARA earlier this year.
Patel told Breitbart News in May that, in anticipation of leaving office, Trump declassified entire collections of documents that he believed the American public should have access to.
I was present when President Trump announced the declassification of this information.
The search revealed records pertaining to Iran, China, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
According to court filings, during the third and last search on August 8, investigators confiscated around 13,000 documents, 103 of which were classified and 18 of which were top secret.
Trump has stated numerous times that he declassified the materials.
In September, he told Sean Hannity of Fox News that, as president, he could declassify records simply by thinking it.
Trump has frequently asserted that the documents seized during three separate searches in January, June, and August were declassified. In response to Hannity’s question, the former president said, “Yes, I declassified them.”
He was questioned how they were declassified by Hannity.
Trump stated, “From my understanding, there is no need for a procedure.”
Different individuals perceive different things.
If you are the president of the United States, you can declassify something simply by announcing that it is declassified.
Even by considering it, since you’re sending it to Mar-a-Lago or someplace.
‘It does not need to be a process; but, it can be a process.
You are the president, thus you make this determination.
Therefore, when you send it, it is no longer classified.
I declassified all information.
In their legal arguments, his own attorneys refrained from saying that he declassified the papers.
What are classified materials and who has the authority to declassify them?
The National Archives and Records Administration informed Congress in a letter that inside 15 boxes of information returned by Trump from Mar-a-Lago, classified national security information was identified.
The government maintains multiple classification levels for information. According to the Senate Intelligence Committee, “Top Secret” material pertains to that which could reasonably be expected to do exceptionally grave harm to national security.
The next level down is’secret’ information, which “reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security.” Below that is ‘confidential’ information, which applies to information “the unauthorized disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to cause damage to the national security.” David Ferriero did not specify the classification level of the information.
The government classifies massive amounts of information, and there has been a long-standing campaign by monitoring groups and some lawmakers to minimize the quantity of information that is classified. Previously, the Washington Post claimed that some of the documents Trump brought to Mar-a-Lago were plainly labelled as classified, with others marked as “top secret.”
Some were described as “very sensitive” and would be restricted to a small group of government personnel. Mishandling classified information is a crime, and the NARA letter adds that it has been “in touch” with the Justice Department.
The president has extensive unilateral declassification authority. In 2019, Trump tweeted a high-resolution image of an Iranian rocket launch, prompting inquiries over whether or not he had disclosed sensitive information. Later, he tweeted, ‘We had a photo, and I released it, as is my entire right.’