"One (question) is whether or not the search itself was justified. We have this list from the FBI, but we don't have conclusive (proof) as to whether or not this actually is classified material and whether or not it rises to the level of the highest classified material," Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN's "State of the Union."
Turner's gambit continued to raise the question of whether the Justice Department overreached in the extraordinary move of obtaining a search warrant to enter a former President's property. But it was also just the latest GOP attempt to defend Trump, still a massively powerful force in the party, that ignored key issues that include why a former President needed to hold on to highly sensitive documents.
(a) Yes, even if Trump
had declassified them, why did he have them at Mar-a-Lago?
but (b) Remember that the search was apparently prompted by a witness who saw some of these documents - and if they had been declassified, but not marked as such, then anybody seeing them would assume they were truly still classified, justifying the search.
Whose fault would it be if they had been declassified but unmarked?! Not the FBI's!
Further, even if declassified (which I doubt), they still did not belong at Mar-a-Lago.
But truth be told, Rep. Turner and the GOP are being led by nose-ring, again, to try to defend a man who has conned them repeatedly with his lies and evasions.