Donald Trump on Wednesday night said that he could declassify documents ‘by thinking about it’ – insisting that the material seized during the August 8 raid on Mar-a-Lago was all declassified, and claiming that the FBI agents at the estate seized his will.
Speaking to Fox News’s Sean Hannity, the former president told of his shock at learning, while in New Jersey, that his Florida estate was being searched.
He also said that he was considering releasing footage of the search, despite the FBI asking him not to, to protect the identity of the agents involved.
Hannity asked him whether the documents seized over the course of three searches – in January, June, and August – were declassified, as Trump has repeatedly claimed, and the former president replied: ‘I did declassify, yes.’
Hannity asked him how they were declassified.
‘There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it,’ Trump said.
‘Different people see different things.
‘If you’re the president of the United States you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified.
‘Even by thinking about it – because you are sending it to Mar-a-Lago or wherever you’re sending it.
‘It doesn’t have to be a process, it can be a process but it doesn’t have to be.
‘You’re the president you make that decision.
‘So when you send it, it’s declassified.
‘I declassified everything.’
Donald Trump on Wednesday night spoke to Fox News host Sean Hannity about the Mar-a-Lago raid
Trump said that the agents ‘shopped’ through his possessions.
‘They took a lot,’ he said.
‘I think they took my will – I found out yesterday. I said, where is it?’
Hannity joked: ‘Am I in it?’
Trump, laughing, replied: ‘That could cause a lot of problems for people who won’t be happy – or maybe will be very happy.’
He added: ‘I think the fact they took my will is a horrible thing. They shopped.’
Agents stand guard outside Mar-a-Lago on August 8, as the FBI was searching the property
Trump said he was in New Jersey when a member of his staff said the Florida estate was being searched, on August 8
Hannity told Trump he had heard ‘they took your passport, the medical records, they took your tax records’ – adding that they also ‘took 500 pages of attorney-client privilege information.’
Trump said the agents went through his personal quarters, and searched the rooms of his wife Melania and son Barron.
‘They came onto the site and wouldn’t allow any legal representation or representation,’ Trump said.
‘So they go into the rooms – my bedroom, my office, they go into my wife’s closet.
‘My son’s bedroom.’
Trump said it was scandalous that 16-year-old Barron Trump’s room was searched, but Hunter Biden’s bedroom was not.
‘There’s a picture of Hunter Biden and Barron Trump – you look so innocent, and Hunter doesn’t look so innocent; they said his room was raided, but his wasn’t.
‘There were terrible things.’