'The excuse of "not marked as classified" is akin to a thief using "not marked as don't steal" to justify theft.'
That doesn't make any sense.
That doesn't make any sense.
I'm not sure why it doesn't make sense.
Removing any information, classified or not, off site is a huge no no. The fact that it was confidential information, that was later marked as such does not change the nature of the information.