‘BullSh*t’: 18 Trump Officials Tell CNN His ‘Standing Order’ Claim on Classified Documents is Nonsense

CNN’s Jamie Gangel reported Thursday she spoke to 18 former Trump administration officials who disputed claims the former President had a “standing order” that allowed him to declassify documents as he saw fit.

One of Gangel’s sources called the claim “bullshit.”

Last week, reporter John Solomon received a statement he said was provided to him by Donald Trump’s team regarding classified documents that allegedly led to the FBI raid of Trump’s home.

Solomon read the statement on Fox News’ Friday edition of Hannity. The statement reads, in part:

[Trump] had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them. The power to classify and declassify documents rests solely with the president of the United States.

The statement concluded any “idea that some paper-pushing bureaucrat with classification authority delegated by the president needs to approve the declassification is absurd.”

The claim has been disputed all week, and picked apart by former government officials with experience handling classified material.

On CNN’s The Lead Thursday, Gangel told host Jake Tapper she had spoken to numerous people who worked for Trump in some official capacity. All disputed the claim.

“It wasn’t just a couple of people,” Gangel said. “We reached out to 18 former very senior Trump officials. White House, intelligence community, Justice Department, even his former chiefs of staff.”

She said some of the 18 laughed it off, but others were willing to dispute it on the record.

Gangel said former white house chief of staff John Kelly told her:

Nothing approaching an order that foolish was ever given, and I can’t imagine anyone that worked at the White House after me that would have simply shrugged their shoulders and allowed that order to go forward without dying in the ditch trying to stop it.

The “standing order” claim was also disputed by former acting Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, former national security adviser John Bolton and former national security official Olivia Troye.

“Another senior official laughed and said, ‘it’s ridiculous,'” Gangel said. “And a very, very senior Trump administration official called it “bullshit,” and there were a couple other words.”

Watch above, via CNN.