House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan Sunday argued that the 37-count indictment former President Donald Trump is facing doesn't change the standard that the Supreme Court set when it comes to a president's authority to declassify documents.
"The standard is Navy vs. Egan, a 1988 case, a unanimous decision from the court," the Ohio Republican said on CNN's "State of the Union." "Justice [Harry] Blackmun wrote the opinion and it said the president's ability to classify and control access to national security information flows from the Constitution. He decides. He alone decides."
Trump, who is facing charges in connection with classified documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate, "can put it wherever he wants and handle it however he wants. That's the law. That's the standard," Jordan said.
"[Special Counsel] Jack Smith can do all these 37 different counts or whatever he wants to do but that doesn't change the standard that the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, said, was that he can classify and he can control access," he added. "He has the sole authority."
In the federal indictment, released Friday, Trump is facing 31 counts of violating the Espionage Act through the “willful retention” of classified records and six other counts, including on obstruction of justice and making false statements.
CNN's Dana Bash, interviewing Jordan, asked him about one part of the indictment alleging that while at his Bedminster, N.J. home and golf club, Trump showed a writer a classified military attack plan and a PAC official a classified map involving a country where the U.S. has ongoing military operations.
During the meeting, which was recorded, Trump said he could have declassified the document while he was still president, but added, "Now, I can't."
"He said time and time again he declassified all this material," said Jordan. "This is the most political thing I have ever seen. They are indicting President Trump on Tuesday for having material that he declassified that was protected by the Secret Service."
With the indictment coming as Trump is running for office, "this is as political as it gets," said Jordan. "We have seen it time and time again with the president over the last 7 years. They try one thing and then they try another."
Jordan also insisted that while boxes of documents were found in a bathroom and a stage at Mar-a-Lago, among other places, the Supreme Court standard would allow him to do that.
"The president of the United States can classify and he can control access to national security information however he wants," said Jordan. "You can't obstruct when there was not an underlying crime."
He also pointed out that the Presidential Records Act was not included in the indictment.
"There is always a back and forth between administrations when they leave, the president and the National Archives," he said. "That is just the normal course of business. But not this time. They decided once again they were going to go after President Trump, something the country has seen the left do, seen the Democrats do for the past seven years."
Jordan also said Sunday that his committee has asked Attorney General Merrick Garland for a memo on the scope of the Trump investigation.
Overall, though the "real jury" will be on Nov. 25, 2024, "when President Trump runs against President Biden," said Jordan.
"I think the American people are going to put President Trump back in the White House because they knew when he was there we had a guy who did more of what he said he would do than any president, certainly in my lifetime."
Meanwhile, there have been some threats of violence over the indictment, even from elected officials, Bash said, and Jordan insisted Republicans don't want it to come to that.
"We've condemned violence every time," he said. "I condemned it when it happened on January 6. I condemned it when it happened in the summer of 2020. It would have been nice if the left would have done the same."