Top Trump intelligence officials testify before special counsel’s grand jury

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13 April 2023

Two top Trump administration intelligence officials testified before the Dept. of Justice’s special counsel‘s grand jury investigating the ex-president’s possibly unlawful mishandling of classified documents and the January 6 insurrection.

Staunch Trump supporter Richard Grenell, who served as acting Director of National Intelligence, testified Thursday before the grand jury, CNN reports, to discuss the classified documents case.

Grenell has said, “There is no approval process for the president of the United States to declassify intelligence. There is this phony idea that he must provide notification for declassification but that’s just silly. Who is he supposed to notify? I think it’s the height of swampism to think the president should seek bureaucrats’ approval.”

Trump claimed, wrongly, “you can declassify just by saying ‘it’s declassified’ — even by thinking about it.”

While presidents don’t have to get “approval” to declassify information, they generally go through a process, as The New York Times last year explained.

“Normally, presidents who want something declassified direct subordinates overseeing the department or agency with primary responsibility for the information to review the matter with an eye to making more of it public. But on rare occasions, presidents declassify something directly.”

Another top Trump intelligence official also testified before the grand jury Thursday: John Ratcliffe, who succeeded Grenell but was confirmed as DNI by the U.S. Senate.

Ratcliffe, ABC News reports, testified before the grand jury on the other matter the Special Counsel is investigating, the January 6 insurrection.

“Ratcliff is the latest former top Trump adviser to appear before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., following a judge’s ruling last month that a number of top aides must appear,” ABC reports.

“Grenell and O’Brien, given their former positions in the intelligence community, could shed light on Trump’s declassification moves around the end of his presidency,” CNN adds. “Their grand jury testimony comes in a period of intense activity from the special counsel’s office, as investigators nail down witness stories and evidence in the year-old criminal case.”

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