By: Khadija Nadeem, Gr, 11
Former USA President Donald Trump’s name has been everywhere in the news lately but why has he suddenly become so politically relevant once more? Here’s a recap and explanation of everything that happened regarding Trump and his latest legal jeopardy. The FBI did an unprecedented search of Trump’s home on August 8th, 2022 from which they seized two dozen boxes of documents. These included 11 sets of classified material, the nature of which has been and still is being kept private from the public eye. The president says he declassified the materials he retained which he has full authority to do so yet, no evidence of his claim has emerged. Hence, the dispute.
These classified documents are restricted to those even within the United States Government and are available only to those with a proven need to see them. Needless to say, the information is sensitive and carefully restricted, removal of the documents is why this issue has blown up so much. Any agency that creates records that become classified has the power to declassify them and in 1988, the US Supreme Court decided that the President has authority to classify and control the access to this important information. But although Trump says this information was declassified by himself there is no evidence to prove that any of the documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence were cleared. Additionally, Trump is no longer president which takes away any authority he might’ve had and gives it to Joe Biden who is the current President of America.
Here’s the defense we have from Trump so far; he claims he had a standing order during his time as president to have the documents removed from the Oval Office and taken to his residence and that they would be deemed declassified the moment they were removed. Kash Patel, a former government official and US attorney, published that although White House lawyers failed to generate the paperwork to change the classification, it does not mean the information was not declassified. But was there even a standing order? Former Trump White House officials including two chiefs of staff and a national security adviser have said they knew of no such order and if they had, they would’ve opposed it. Furthermore, such an order would still require the knowledge of officials who are charged with protecting the information. To go even further, a previous precedent set by Trump himself supports that any documents would need to be physically marked to reflect status and that even a written announcement that something is declassified is insufficient.
While Trump’s innocence on this matter is being settled, there are still other offenses he must face. Prosecutors cited three federal criminal laws as the basis for the FBI search, laws involving the removal of information related to national defense, hiding government records, and obstructing a federal investigation which does not depend on whether or not the information and documents in question were declassified. So did Trump do something wrong? Yes. Did he declassify those documents? We don’t know. Could Trump be prosecuted regardless? Yes. All questions everyone has been wondering about the answers to and as the investigation moves forward, more details will be revealed. Canadian laws have similar levels of classification for documents and information but Prime Ministers do not retain access to government resources once their term has ended as US Presidents do.
Thursday, May 7, 2026
