The Process to Declassify Classified Documents

From: https://www.quora.com/Why-can-no-one-take-the-truth-that-Trump-declassified-all-these-documents-Everything-the-FBI-took-was-declassified-so-everyone-needs-to-do-some-research-Don-t-people-do-that-anymore

Chris O’Leary · 

Follow

Former Marine. Political Nerd. History Buff. Married a Doc. Sep 30

Why can no one take the truth that Trump declassified all these documents? Everything the FBI took was declassified so everyone needs to do some research. Don’t people do that anymore?

OK, Seriously. You’re ALMOST there. Breathe.

Ask this question again, but before you do, take your own suggestion. This time, however, I’m going to need you to take the air quotes away from the word “research.”

What I’d like to ask you to do is to read up on “The Process for Declassifying Classified Material In the United States.” Not what the media says, mainstream or otherwise, the actual laws governing this.

Here. I’ll help you out. Here is the legal process encoded in

• 5 U.S.C. §552, Freedom of Information Act, and
• 50 U.S.C. §3355, Public Interest Declassification Act

Here’s the section on Presidential Declassification:

What that means is that by law, the Executive Branch can, through the PIDC board recommend that the President Declassify information, which the President may then do by Executive Order, or the President, on his own, has the power by law to declassify MOST documents by Executive Order.

Note that last part. “By Executive Order.” No Such Order has been issued, or it would be, as with all EO’s in the Federal Register.

Federal Register :: Request AccessRequest Access Due to aggressive automated scraping of FederalRegister.gov and eCFR.gov, programmatic access to these sites is limited to access to our extensive developer APIs. If you are human user receiving this message, we can add your IP address to a set of IPs that can access FederalRegister.gov & eCFR.gov; complete the CAPTCHA (bot test) below and click “Request Access”. This should only be necessary once for each IP address you access the site from. An official website of the United States government. If you want to request a wider IP range, first request access for your current IP, and then use the “Site Feedback” button found in the lower left-hand side to make the request.https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders

Now, that’s just the legal restriction on how things need to be done. There is actually a tighter restriction on the process, this one set by Executive Order 13256.

The President Executive Order 13526Classified National Security Information December 29, 2009 Part 1 – Original Classification Part 2 – Derivative Classification Part 3 – Declassification and Downgrading Part 4 – Safeguarding Part 5 – Implementation and Review Part 6- General Provisions This order prescribes a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security information, including information relating to defense against transnational terrorism. Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their Government.https://www.archives.gov/isoo/policy-documents/cnsi-eo.html

Executive Order 13256, which is still in effect, details the processes by which any Executive Branch Official, including the President, may declassify a document. In order to change this process, which no, is not “Because I say so,” and Certainly not “The President did it mentally” The President would have first had to write a new Executive Order overriding EO 13256. He did no such thing, therefore the process laid out in 13526 must still be followed.

It was not, and to be clear, much of the process set out in 13256 is there so that there IS no question, there is a clear paper trail showing that a piece of information was declassified. In other words, if there is no paper trail, then 13256 was not followed, and therefore the information is still classified.

The Process for Declassifying Nuclear secrets is even MORE restrictive, governed by the Energy Organization Act of 1977. Since this process is encoded in law, it may not be superseded by Executive Order. Per the EOA, Nuclear Secrets cannot be declassified by Presidential Decree alone.https://sgp.fas.org/library/quist/chap_4.pdf

So. There you have it laid out. That’s the process for Declassifying Classified information, As your question suggests, there is the research, all you need do is read it, then ask yourself the following questions:

Is there a published Executive Order from President Trump or anyone else Declassifying this information?

The answer to that simplest of questions is “no,” therefore the documents are still classified, whether the secrets are nuclear or not. (If they were nuclear, they may still be classified, even if there was an EO ordering their declassification if the process for declassification was not followed.)

See? Yes. People do still research things. But as demonstrated here, taking the air quotes off of “research” is a REALLY important step there, right?