U.S. officials have not proven that former President Donald Trump held classified records, lawyers for the ex-president said in a new filing on Sept. 20.
The government “presupposes that the documents it claims are classified are, in fact, classified and their segregation is inviolable. However, the Government has not yet proven this critical fact,” the lawyers wrote to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
They pointed to an executive order from former President Barack Obama, which remained in place through the Trump presidency and gives the president authority to declassify any document, and said Trump had the absolute authority to declassify any records….