Trump’s defense is nonsense

Trump claims he has secretly declassified all the documents he was hiding at Mar-a-Lago.  First, it doesn’t work that way. Nuclear secrets can’t just be declassified unilaterally by the President. It requires a sign-off by the Department of Energy. Second, it is still a crime to take those documents even if they have been formally declassified.

And third, if the documents were really declassified, then anyone can read them now. In other words, to get out of legal jeopardy he is trying to let the Ayatollah in Iran, the leaders of Islamic State and all the branches of al-Qaeda, the Chinese government, Putin, hell, pick your international bad guy, all of them get to read some of America’s most closely guarded nuclear secrets now. I can’t imagine that will be allowed to happen, no matter how much the Trumpers scream and cry.