> He was really saying that it’s declassified by מחשבה and מעשה together.
Indeed, by raising the documents, he is performing meshihah and lawfully acquires them. “classified” simply means proprietary to US government. So, as T has a right to make them “unclassified”, in effect, hefker, and then acquire them, they are his. So, I suggest T takes USG to a beis din for arbitration and win using this argument.
There is also a problem with the government position: if they maintain that these documents are classified, then allowing them to be not a secure location for so long is a breach on their part. They should have investigated and sealed the documents on day one instead of sending polite emails. This is at least second case like that, see Hillary’s server, and these people should be fired, at least. Of course, if they are lying and the documents do not represent any danger, they should be fired also. So, in both cases, they are posul for edut.