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President Donald Trump signing a bipartisan bill to stop the flow of opioids into the United States in the Oval Office of the White House on January 10, 2018, in Washington, DC.Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images

David Laufmansaid there would be evidence if Trump declassified the Mar-a-Lago documents.

Laufman, a former DOJ official, investigated Hillary Clinton's handling of classified records.

Trump said he had a "standing order" to declassify, but ex-officials have pushed back on the claim.

A former Department of Justice official has pushed back on Trump's claim that he had broadly declassified all the documents held at Mar-a-Lago, saying if that were the case there would be evidence to back it up.

Trump made the claim after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida last week. The search was part of a Justice Department investigation into potential violations of three laws related to the handling of government records. Court documents showed that 11 sets of classified materials were seized during the search.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and said he had a standing order to declassify documents that were removed from the Oval Office and taken to his residence. Presidential records, classified or not, are public property and by law are managed by the National Archives when a president leaves office.

David Laufman, a former chief of the Justice Department's counterintelligence division, dismissed the idea of the standing order or broad declassification.

"It can't just be an idea in his head," Laufman, who led the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails and handling of classified documents, told CNN. "Programs and officials would have been notified. There is no evidence they were."

Presidents have broad authority to declassify documents, but former Trump administration officials told CNN there is a process that is followed. The process typically involves documenting the declassification and notifying agencies, such as the CIA, NSA, or Defense Department.

Laufman had previously said the documents Trump was holding at Mar-a-Lago were particularly "stunning" and "egregious" because of their level of classification. Court records showed that one set of documents was labeled "Sensitive Compartmented Information," the highest level of sensitivity a classified documentcan be designated.

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Former Trump White House officials also pushed back on Trump's claim that he had a "standing order" to declassify documents when they were transported. Two of Trump's former chiefs of staff, John Kelly and Mick Mulvaney, told CNN they'd never heard of such an order.

"Nothing approaching an order that foolish was ever given," said Kelly, who was Trump's chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019. "And I can't imagine anyone that worked at the White House after me that would have simply shrugged their shoulders and allowed that order to go forward without dying in the ditch trying to stop it."

CNN spoke with a total of 18 former Trump administration officials, some unnamed, who all said they had never heard of such an order, with several laughing at the idea and suggesting Trump had made it up.

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Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been photographed in the Hamptons in New York ahead of Bills 76th birthday on Friday.

The couple was spotted walking along a beach with their security, while their daughter Chelsea jogged nearby.

HILLARY CLINTON RIPS BERNIE SANDERS AS SEXIST: I KNOW THE KIND OF THINGS HE SAYS ABOUT WOMEN

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were spotted walking along the beach in the Hamptons on Thursday, Aug. 18. The Clintons were followed by their security as daughter Chelsea was spotted jogging nearby. (Matt Agudo / Splash News)

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"Happy Birthday Dad! Looking forward to sharing happy memories (& cake!) with you for many years to come!" Chelsea Clinton later wrote Friday on Twitter.

"Happy birthday, @BillClinton," Hillary added in her own tweet, along with a heart emoji.

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Bill Clinton turns 76: Former president, Hillary spotted in the Hamptons - Fox News

OPINION:

Recently, we have had to endure a series of reminders that no person is above the law from a batch of folks, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio.

But that is not really true, is it?

There are many, many people who are and have been, at least so far, above the law. Heres a very short list:

Hunter Biden, and the big guy, aka President Biden, assuming he really did profit from whatever Hunter was doing with the communist Chinese, the Ukrainians or the Mexicans.

The honorable Hillary Clinton.

The FBI agents who offered whatever wound up being necessary for the FISA court to issue warrants to surveil the Trump campaign in 2016.

BLM rioters/mostly peaceful protesters.

Mostly peaceful pro-abortion protesters, either picketing outside the homes of Supreme Court justices or tossing the occasional firebomb through the windows of a pregnancy center

The folks who gave you the wholly fabricated Steele dossier.

The 5 million people who have crossed the southern border in contravention of American law since Mr. Biden became president.

Everyone in the Bush administration who was absolutely certain and completely wrong about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Everyone in the Obama administration involved in the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen (Anwar al-Awlaki).

Everyone who has committed or is committing crimes that local district attorneys in places like New York City, Philadelphia and Los Angeles dont feel like prosecuting.

Medical professionals who perform gender-transition surgery on those too young to give consent.

The federal government teams at Ruby Ridge or the Branch Davidian ranch near Waco, Texas.

So, it turns out that quite a few people are above the law.

Maybe everyone who is busy telling us no one is above the law have other folks in mind.

For example, the legal system in the United States seems most concerned about the 500 or so remaining defendants from the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. The Department of Justice is hiring more than 100 new prosecutors just to prosecute them.

The legal system is also paying close attention to American taxpayers, who are about to face the prospect of 87,000 new IRS agents.

Finally, the legal system seems especially interested in former President Donald Trump. It was so interested that someone (not sure who just yet) swore out an affidavit (not sure whats in it) for the warrant that allowed the FBI to execute a raid at Mar-a-Lago, looking for, depending on which version of the story you believe, special access program (nuclear weapons) secrets, some random things related to the Presidential Records Act, or something tenuously related to the Espionage Act.

Probably the best indication that all of that is completely or mostly fictive is that the raid took almost 10 hours. Trained law enforcement agents who know what they are looking for (the raid was originally said to be based on information from an inside source who knew where the documents in question were) dont usually take 10 hours to find it.

If retrieving misplaced or inappropriately removed nuclear secrets were the objective, it seems odd that the government took 18 months to get around to it, and even more unusual that Mr.Garland took a few weeks to decide whether or not to seek the warrant.

Given all this, it is small wonder that Mr. Trumps followers are skeptical of the idea that no one is above the law. The legal system itself like all other American institutions with the possible exception of their church and local law enforcement has proved to be a hollow and cynical shell. Federal law enforcement, rule of law and equal application of the law? Government? Schools? Medicine? The media? The military?

Consequently, federal officials telling pleasant fictions about no one being above the law only serve to highlight the distance between the elites and the people, between stated aspirations and ugly truths.

Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, co-hosts The Unregulated podcast. He was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House.

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Who's above the law? How about Hunter Biden, Hillary Clinton and BLM rioters, for starters - Washington Times

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA As the water levels of Lake Mead continue to go down, more human remains are being found. In response to this recent development, Hillary Clinton has been spotted outside Lake Mead desperately trying to fill the lake back up with a garden hose.

"This is the fifth body they've found since May, Bill! We gotta get out there now and do something about this!" said Hillary Clinton to her husband in a panic. "Hurry, grab the hose! We have to fill the lake back up!"

According to sources, the former Senator and failed Presidential candidate was spotted connecting a hose to a public bathroom at Lake Mead and running it all the way to the shoreline.

Park Rangers say Hillary Clinton will need about 38 million more gallons of water just to bring up the water an inch. Rangers stated that they just didn't have the heart to tell her, as they've been having too much fun watching the entire ordeal play out. Some have even started placing bets on when she'll finally throw in the towel.

At publishing time, despite Hillary's efforts, the water dried up further revealing 42 more bodies, all of which had ties to the Clinton Foundation. Confronted by the media, Hillary brushed the whole thing off as a far-right conspiracy theory, while Bill actually seemed excited as if he was looking forward to some time away from Hillary.

The California Dream ain't what it used to be. Enjoy our song lamenting the fall of the Golden State:

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Hillary Clinton Spotted Desperately Trying To Refill Lake Mead Before More Bodies Surface - The Babylon Bee

A Republican candidate running for a seat in Oklahoma's state House once said it is "totally just" to kill gay people in comments that have resurfaced amid his campaign.

Scott Esk is running to represent Oklahoma's 87th House District, which includes parts of Oklahoma City. He is set to face another Republican Gloria Banister in a Tuesday runoff, but his campaign has faced scrutiny in recent days over the resurfaced comments, which began nearly a decade earlier. The comments resurfaced last year in a Facebook comment thread as many in the LGBTQ community have warned about a rise in homophobic rhetoric in politics.

In 2013, when Esk was running in a different race, the candidate commented on an article about the Pope asking "who I am to judge?" about gay people. According to MSNBC, Esk responded with Bible verses condemning homosexuality, prompting another user to ask if he believes "we should execute homosexuals (presumably by stoning)?"

"I think we would be totally in the right to do it," he said, according to MSNBC. "That goes against some parts of libertarianism, I realize, and I'm largely libertarian, but ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss."

Local news outlet TheMooreDaily.com also pressed him on the remarks, to which he responded that it was "totally just" to kill gay people in the Bible's Old Testament.

"What I will tell you right now is that was done in the Old Testament under a law that came directly from God. And in that time, it was totally justit came directly from God. I have no plans to reinstitute that in Oklahoma law. I do have very big moral misgivings about those kinds of sins, and I think that those kinds of sins will not do our country any good and certainly doesn't do anything to preserve the family," he said.

He responded to criticism in a YouTube video on July 15, when a local news station reported on his old comments. In the video, he asked if having "an opinion against homosexuality" makes him "a homophobe." However, he added that he believes it "simply makes me a Christian."

In the video, he said that he is "not for expanding the death penalty for homosexuality," but still denounced what he views as the "obscene things homosexuals do."

Newsweek reached out to the Esk campaign for comment. In remarks to The Oklahoman, Esk dismissed previous coverage of his comments as a "hit piece."

Esk is not the only prominent conservative figure in the United States to push anti-gay, and at times violent, rhetoric in recent months.

Pastor Mark Burns, who ran and lost a primary challenge for a South Carolina House seat, also called for the execution of gay people. He said that parents and teachers who discuss the LGBTQ community with children should be found guilty of "treason."

"We need to hold people for treason; start having some public hearings and start executing people who are found guilty for their treasonous acts against the Constitution of the United States of America. Just like they did back in 1776," he said.

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GOP Candidate Saying it's 'Totally Just' to Kill Gay People Resurfaces - Newsweek