What happens if I redact a classified document myself and release it instead of waiting for declassification review?

Short answer: don’t. Redacting a classified document on your own and releasing it, rather than routing it through the established declassification review process, is not a shortcut you are authorized to take. It can constitute an unauthorized disclosure of classified national security information, even if your redactions seem thorough.

Why classified material requires formal review

Classified records are controlled under a government-wide security classification system. Information stays classified until it is formally declassified by an appropriate authority or through an established process. Individual employees generally do not hold the authority to declassify information or to decide, on their own, that redaction has made a document safe to release.

A document may also contain information whose sensitivity is not obvious to you. Classification can hinge on context, sourcing, or the way separate facts combine. Reviewers trained in classification guidance, and often coordination across multiple agencies that have equities in the record, are the ones positioned to make that determination.

What can go wrong

• Unauthorized disclosure. Releasing classified information without authorization, even partially redacted, can violate law and agency policy and may carry administrative, civil, or criminal consequences.
• Inadequate redaction. Redaction is harder than it looks. Improperly applied redactions can be reversed or reveal underlying text, and “mosaic” effects can let small disclosures add up to a larger compromise.
• Loss of the record’s integrity. Altering or releasing an official record outside authorized channels can undermine recordkeeping obligations and chain of custody.

The right path

If a request for the record comes in, route it through the lawful channels: a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and/or the agency’s declassification and prepublication review processes. Under FOIA, trained reviewers apply the appropriate exemptions and redactions and document the basis for any withholding. If you believe material should be declassified, raise it with your security or records officer, your classification authority, or through a mandatory declassification review request, rather than acting unilaterally.

When in doubt, treat the information as still classified and escalate. Protecting both the public’s right to information and national security depends on using the established review process.

Learn more on the declassification topic hub.