What a friggin mess. The treason in this government runs from the bottom to the top.
I’m not quite grasping the, uh, nuances of the argument being made by Trump’s lawyers, and I don’t think the Special Master will either. They claim the documents are all declassified, but won’t state how/why/when because...reasons?
More like Trump world class HATER...
The problem with judges is they all used to be lawyers. Most of them would sell their mothers for a dime.
Any docs removed by the President are automatically declassified, that is the point that needs to be made.
Boy they are really fighting to prevent Americans of seeing a conspiracy of Senators, Media, CIA, FBI of spying on a Presidential candidate for the sole purpose of destroying him.
There’s this from 2017:
https://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2017/170516-president-declassification.htm
It is well worth reading.
“Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is an American political activist, and former United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, Ellsberg precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of the U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War, to The New York Times, The Washington Post and other newspapers.
“On January 3, 1973, Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 along with other charges of theft and conspiracy, carrying a total maximum sentence of 115 years.
“Because of governmental misconduct and illegal evidence-gathering, and the defense by Leonard Boudin and Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. dismissed all charges against Ellsberg on May 11, 1973.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg
“In late 1969, with the assistance of his former RAND Corporation colleague Anthony Russo, Ellsberg secretly made several sets of photocopies of the classified documents to which he had access; these later became known as the Pentagon Papers. They revealed that, early on, the government had knowledge that the war as then resourced could most likely not be won. Further, as an editor of The New York Times was to write much later, these documents ‘demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance.’”
“The right of the press to publish the papers was upheld in The New York Times Co. v. United States.”
This is merely a (probably partial) listing of possibly applicable law and no inference that Trump committed a related crime should be made:
18 U.S. Code § 798 - Disclosure of classified information
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/798
(d)Whoever, lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it; or
(e)Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it; or
(f)Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense,
(1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or
(2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
18 U.S. Code § 793 - Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/793
“The President...may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices...”
Why was that put in the Constitution?
I suspect because somebody like George Washington didn’t want the old-fashioned equivalent of Monday morning quarterbacking.
Only by having documentary evidence that supported his action can a President be safe from unwanted & unjustified politically motivated attacks.
It is both necessary and proper that a former President be able to retain such documents. Politics is among the most vicious of occupations.
If they weren’t declassified when the FBI first saw them (and only recommended an extra lock on the door), then why didn’t they seize them then?
Sec. 1.7. Classification Prohibitions and Limitations.
(a) In no case shall information be classified,
continue to be maintained as classified,
or fail to be declassified in order to:
(1) conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error;
(2) prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency;
(3) restrain competition; or
(4) prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of the national security.
Part 3 - Declassification and Downgrading
Sec. 3.1. Authority for Declassification. (a) Information shall be declassified as soon as it no longer meets the standards for classification under this order.
(b) Information shall be declassified or downgraded by:
(1) the official who authorized the original classification, if that official is still serving in the same position and has original classification authority;
(2) the originator’s current successor in function, if that individual has original classification authority;
(3) a supervisory official of either the originator or his or her successor in function, if the supervisory official has original classification authority;
Sec. 3.2. Transferred Records.
(a) In the case of classified records transferred in conjunction with a transfer of functions, and not merely for storage purposes, the receiving agency shall be deemed to be the originating agency for purposes of this order.
Part 4 - Safeguarding
Sec. 4.1. General Restrictions on Access.
(a) A person may have access to classified information provided that:
(1) a favorable determination of eligibility for access has been made by an agency head or the agency head’s designee;
(2) the person has signed an approved nondisclosure agreement; and
(3) the person has a need to know the information
....
(d) Classified information may not be removed from official premises without proper authorization.
(e) Persons authorized to disseminate classified information outside the executive branch shall ensure the protection of the information in a manner equivalent to that provided within the executive branch.
Sec. 4.2 Distribution Controls.
(a) The head of each agency shall establish procedures in accordance with applicable law and consistent with directives issued pursuant to this order to ensure that classified information is accessible to the maximum extent possible by individuals who meet the criteria set forth in section 4.1(a) of this order.
https://www.archives.gov/isoo/policy-documents/cnsi-eo.html
PART 3—DECLASSIFICATION AND DOWNGRADING
Sec. 3.1. Authority for Declassification. (a) Information shall be declassified as soon as it no longer meets the standards for classification under this order.
(b) It is presumed that information that continues to meet the classification requirements under this order requires continued protection. In some exceptional cases, however, the need to protect such information may be outweighed by the public interest in disclosure of the information, and in these cases the information should be declassified. When such questions arise, they shall be referred to the agency head or the senior agency official. That official will determine, as an exercise of discretion, whether the public interest in disclosure outweighs the damage to the national security that might reasonably be expected from disclosure. This provision does not:
(1) amplify or modify the substantive criteria or procedures for classification; or
(2) create any substantive or procedural rights subject to judicial review.
(d) The originating agency shall take all reasonable steps to declassify classified information contained in records determined to have permanent historical value before they are accessioned into the National Archives.
https://sgp.fas.org/bush/eoamend.html
Kash Patel: “… we did this big declass at the end of the Trump administration. And his cronies actually bureaucratically stopped the declassification process … [Trump] said ‘declassify this mountain of documents’ he walked out and his cronies were like ‘well, we’re not going to do that.’
It was sufficient to give the order IMO.
There are apparently other persons knowledgeable about Trump’s declassification order other than just Trump and Patel.
My question is...how many of these documents are actual “originals”. Surely, many are not. The library has a shredder, too.
“There is no legitimate contention that the chief executive’s declassification of documents requires approval of bureaucratic components of the executive branch.
Sounds like Judge Raymond Dearie some bait from someone?.
I hope Trump’s lawyers put forth “the Bill Clinton’s sock drawer” defense.
Since that case was decided by SCOTUS it would be hard to beat.
Unless, SCOTUS decided that was wrongly decided and they reverse that ruling.
First, and probably most important, is "separation of powers".
It has long been recognized that our Republic consists of three co-equal branches; the legislative, the judicial, and the executive. Each is protected in its duties from the other two. None of them has the authority to surrender their powers to the others.
The other term missing from the thread is "executive privilege". This term describes the fact that a President cannot operate in a vacuum. He needs advisers to inform him and make recommendations to him. The President is not required to provide details of important deliberations to anybody.
There are "checks and balances" in the system designed to prevent abuse of office. The authority of any branch of our government is not unlimited. The basic limits are spelled out in the Constitution and others are defined by the various precedential legal cases.
The bottom line in this case would appear to involve whether Congress, in writing laws regarding classification of documents, has the authority to limit the actions of a President. The President is the caretaker of the nation's important secrets. Presumably the President is privy to any secrets that might impact the nation's well-being. As President, he requires the authority to use the information he has, whether classified or not, to carry out his duties.
Just as the President does not have the authority to dictate to Congress how its committees conduct their business, Congress does not have the authority to dictate to the President how he conducts his business.
I would suggest that it is virtually impossible for Congress to limit what President Trump did with the documents in question. It would be a big mistake for Trump to declare that he carried out any particular process with regard to those documents. It is sufficient that nobody else can claim that he committed a crime in his handling of such documents.
As for the idea that Biden "re-classified" the documents, the burden on Biden of such a claim would be great indeed. How does one classify documents knowing that copies exist outside the government?
Hi.
I’ve posted this before and will say it again.
Apparently the FBI didn’t get all of the Crossfire Hurricane docs. Probably another raid coming.
In the fwiw department, I hope Garland and Wray get herpes.
5.56mm