President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, told a federal court that the president’s recent tweets related to the declassification of secretive Trump-Russia documents were not declassification orders and were not meant to reveal any further information related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
“The President indicated to me that his statements on Twitter were not self-executing declassification orders and do not require the declassification or release of any particular documents, including the FD-302 reports of witness interviews prepared by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in connection with the investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III,” said a declaration signed by Meadows provided in a court filing by the Justice Department with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday. “Instead, the President’s statements related to the authorization he had provided the Attorney General to declassify documents as part of his ongoing review of intelligence activities relating to the 2016 Presidential election and certain related matters. The President’s statements do not require altering any redactions on any record at issue in these or other cases, including, but not limited to, any redactions taken pursuant to any discretionary FOIA exemptions.”
