Kash Patel (photo, left; bio here) is a GOP operative who’s held various positions in government, e.g. working for a Republican congressman and ultimately in Trump’s administration.
He has a degree from a New York law school, and worked as a public defender, and then for the Department of Justice (but not as a prosecutor) on counterterrorism. So he’s an intelligent guy; but remember, intelligent and smart are different things.
Going on Fox News for a softball interview by Trump sycophant Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, August 14, 2022, Patel argued the documents Trump hoarded at Mar-a-Lago were declassified because, “He can literally stand over a set of documents and say these are now declassified and that is done with definitive action immediately.”
That’s debatable; Raw Story says (here), “According to The Washington Post, there is a declassification process for a president to follow when declassifying documents. And there is no evidence that the documents found at Mar-a-Lago had been declassified.”
But let’s skip over that, and cut to the chase: If Trump can do what Patel says, then Biden upon taking office could wave his magic wand and say, “These documents are now classified again,” that is definitive action that takes effect immediately.
The evidence that Biden did so is the fact that the current government is treating these documents are classified.
This is how you take a dumb lawyer’s lame argument and turn it against him. (I wonder how many of his former clients are in jail?) This also illustrates why Patel has spent his career carrying other people’s briefcases.