Top Republican says President has ‘different rules that apply to him’

The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said he didn’t take any classified documents but instead defended former President Donald Trump for having “different rules.”

“I have lived in the secret world for most of my professional career. I personally wouldn’t do that,” Texas Representative Michael McCaul told ABC This Week host Martha Raddatz on Sunday morning.

“But I’m not the president,” he continued. “Different rules apply to him.”

McCaul explained that presidents have the ability to release information “on the fly,” which is essentially true because they have constitutional authority to do so.

Top GOP member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul said he did not take classified information from the White House like Donald Trump did

Donald Trump took thousands of materials from the White House when he left office last year — something that contradicts the Presidential Records Act, which requires that all presidential materials be retained by the National Archives.

The FBI seized empty folders containing secret markings, clothing, books and government photos during its raid on Mar-a-Lago, a new inventory list unsealed by a judge on Friday revealed.

Among the items listed in the documents released Friday are 47 empty folders found in Trump’s office and marked as “classified,” along with more than 1,500 magazines, newspapers, press articles and other printed media from around him .

The list shows several folders found in the raid had secret markings – but no content was in them. Magazine and newspaper articles were also picked up.

Among the items listed in the documents released Friday are 47 empty folders found in Trump’s office and marked as “classified,” along with more than 1,500 magazines, newspapers, press articles and other printed media from around him .

At least 14 items found during the raid were clothing or gifts.

Also found were 86 empty folders with “classified” banners and other labels such as “Return to Staff Secretary/Military Aide”.

The vast majority of the materials seized were unclassified photos and documents, of which more than 11,000 were found and taken from Trump’s estate.

The inventory of items released Friday comes the same week the DOJ released an image of documents scattered across the Mar-a-Lago floor, many with “Secret” and “Top Secret” labels