Inside the Federal Declassification Push: What It Means for Agencies

A renewed transparency push has brought declassification back into focus at the federal level. Declassification, the formal process that removes secrecy markings so records can be released, forces agencies to inventory, assess, and redact large collections.

More than 1 million documents have been released in the first three quarters of 2025, according to the National Declassification Center. The effort to process and prepare enormous amounts of data is putting a lot of pressure on federal agencies, particularly within the Department of Defense (DOD) and other members of the intelligence community, creating major workload and compliance challenges.

A Wave of Transparency: The Scale of Declassification 

Historically, federal agencies routed declassification through the National Archives on a 25-year schedule. Under Executive Order 13526, set by former President Barack Obama in 2009, classified records over 25 years old must be reviewed and released unless exemptions apply.

In early 2025, Trump’s Executive Order 14176 created a new imperative. “Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” was signed on January 23. Less than three weeks later, on February 11, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced the formation of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets to oversee and accelerate a sweeping transparency initiative. That initiative encompasses records related to Executive Order 14176 as well as those for unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs; an updated and broader term than UFOs), the Epstein investigation, the origins of COVID-19, and the September 11 attacks.

In less than five months, more than 400,000 pages were released regarding the Kennedys and King. Overall, in the first three quarters of 2025, the National Declassification Center has reported close to 1.5 million pages of documents released.

Additional signs of this transparency shift came later in 2025. In July, the Department of Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sent a declassified appendix of the Durham report to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The following month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released newly declassified court opinions and related materials under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. 

Agencies Are Scrambling: The Declassification Workload Crisis 

As the number of declassified records rises into the millions, the pressure on agencies and staff continues. While the direct impact might seem obvious, it’s actually not that simple and straightforward.

• More Agencies Are Being Pulled Into the Process: Many DOD agencies and intelligence units that rarely released records are now being asked to do so. Under DOD regulations for Mandatory Declassification Review, all organizational entities within DOD must establish declassification procedures and review records originating in their components. Agencies also need to coordinate when documents contain content relevant to multiple departments, expanding responsibilities beyond traditional reviewers. 

• Interagency Complexities Add Overhead: Some agencies (like the CIA and FBI) have their own declassification rules. Projects can move across multiple agencies, requiring careful coordination and introducing additional steps, review requirements, and potential delays. 

• Manual Processes Exacerbate the Problems: Many agencies are using manual processes to redact information for release. Humans are going through documents by hand to manually redact what can’t be released.

What does this mean for agencies, ultimately? It’s simply too much. Declassification is taking a toll on the ability to redact millions of documents. 

A request for information (RFI) from the U.S. Army in May 2025 acknowledged the burden. The RFI noted how the rising nature of digital documents for declassification far exceeds existing staffing levels. 

The document called for information about how AI and machine learning solutions can assist in declassifying historical records. Areas like security, accuracy, compliance were also highlighted in the notice.

How the DOD Is Tackling the Data Challenges 

What the Army RFI outlines is available to agencies. In fact, the Casepoint data discovery platform is being used within the DOD for declassification. Here are a few ways it helps accelerate declassification.

• Bulk Data Processing at Scale: Agencies can ingest and process massive volumes of data quickly — the platform has set records for processing capabilities, at more than 20 terabytes of data per day. Features like deduplication (automatically identifying duplicate files) and optical character recognition (OCR) for scanned images make large collections more searchable and manageable.   

• Automatic Searching and Tagging: Reviewers can run keyword and pattern searches across entire datasets to identify content that requires redaction. For instance, one agency had 20 specific names to redact across a project. The system can locate and redact all instances automatically, leaving staff to verify results rather than perform every action manually. 

• Analytics and Reporting: Built-in analytics help teams track progress and review accuracy and compliance. It’s critical for demonstrating defensibility and maintaining chain-of-custody throughout the declassification process. 

• Highly Secure Environment: Casepoint is authorized at DOD Impact Level 6 (IL6) for hosting, storing, and accessing secret information, allowing agencies to maintain classified records in one compliant cloud environment. It’s the first and only cloud-based legal hold and eDiscovery software solution that holds that designation. Actually, Casepoint is one of only seven SaaS-based companies in the world with that certification, and also maintains IL4 and IL5 designations, and is FedRAMP® Moderate and High Authorized.  

Agencies need to leverage technology to help declassify increasing volumes of records. Casepoint is helping meet transparency goals without compromising classified information.